Boris is down, but he doesn't realise he is also out.

[Alex]

Having been given advance access to the report on his behaviour during lockdown and the parties being held at Downing Street, disgraced ex-prime minister Boris Johnson has stood down as an MP with immediate effect, triggering a by-election in his seat. Two other Conservative MP's have also stood down in recent days, meaning the ruling party is going to have to face three such elections while their standing in the polls is running consistently well behind their main rivals. Dire results will weaken the current PM's position, although not fatally I suspect.

Basically, he is running away, as he could be forced to have an immediate reelection as his constituents could demand a recall (something that is very rare to the best of my knowledge. I don't think there has been one in my lifetime, but if 10% of a constituency call for an MP to be recalled, they have to have a by-election).

I don't personally trust polls all that much, but if they are to be believed, the right-wing party in the UK will get destroyed at the next election. Since 2016, I've seen as many new PM's than I had seen in the rest of my life previously. He has indicated that a return to politics may be in the cards in the future (and back to the top job), but I would be genuinely surprised if even Boris could pull a comeback off from this one.

[ER]

I once heard him say that when he leaves "public service" he would like to go be a history lecturer. I would be surprised if he did that, or at least did it before he cashed in on years of traded favors to the private sector and made a pile of money. Seems the usual practice. For good or ill I think the UK is soon to be in for a decade of Labour rule.

[Alex]

During John Major's time in office, I remember before an election all the polls had the Tories heading for a crushing defeat. The conservatives were constantly in the papers, lurching from one scandal to the next, as seems to be the want of any right-wing party in power for too long. In the end, the Tories won and quite comfortably too. After some study and reflection, it was decided the reason the pollsters had gotten things so wrong was because people were too ashamed to admit they were going to vote for them publically. Yeah, it does look as if they are heading for a crushing defeat. Their leadership hasn't been, they crashed the economy (unusual for a right-wing party. It is normally what they are good at), a lettuce lasted longer than one of their PMs (seriously, google it), flagship policies they've been running throughout their run have been revealed to be causing much more harm than expected and not doing any good.

I just wish I had any faith that Keir Starmer would do any better. The Labour party has moved so far to the centre that the liberal democrats might as well give up and go home.

As for Boris's money. Well he isn't the richest member of his party but he isn't exactly poor either.

In March 2023, Mr Johnson’s disclosures in the Register of MPs interests showed his income in the first 6 months after leaving No 10 to have totalled almost £5m.

This is on top of the £84,144 salary that he still receives as a backbench MP.

Boris Johnson’s earnings over this period amounted to over £25,000 per day. Indeed in the first two months of 2023, Mr Johnson on his own, accounted for 85% of the total money earned by all 650 MPs for having a second job.

It was reported in February 2023 that Mr Johnson had agreed to buy a £4m, nine-bedroom house with a moat in Oxfordshire. According to other reports, Boris and Carrie Johnson have also recently purchased a five-bedroom house thought to be worth over £3m in south London.

I'd be surprised if that was all of his income. He'll have other income streams that don't make it onto the books.