British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, weighed down by a carousel of scandal and facing calls to resign by members of his own party, channelled a character from the Disney film The Lion King as he tried to convince his staff not to abandon him.
After a flurry of resignations in recent days - some an orchestrated attempt to show change is underway at No. 10 Downing St, others not - Johnson has been meeting with remaining staffers in the hope they won't ditch him as he tries to fight for his job.
According to a The Guardian report, Johnson quoted The Lion King's Rafiki, an anthropomorphic mandrill in the animated film, by telling staff that "change is good". He apparently explicitly told aides that he was in fact quoting from the film.
Johnson appears to be quite amused by animal characters. He confused people last year by speaking at length about Peppa Pig World, an amusement park themed around the television character. At a global climate convention last year, he referenced a song sung by Kermit the Frog about being green and spoke about how the character was rude to Miss Piggy.
With details of Johnson's conversation to staff made public by a spokesperson, the Prime Minister's movie quotation could be an attempt to build back his 'ordinary man', baffling persona once popular with some Brits. He won an overwhelming majority for the Conservatives at the 2019 election.
Johnson has been under fire for months now over allegations of numerous parties held at Downing St and at other government buildings while COVID-19 restrictions were in place.
It emerged on Saturday that police have a photo of Johnson holding a can of beer at his birthday party during June 2020, while restrictions were in place. Social gatherings weren't allowed at the time. While Downing St has said staff gathered briefing to celebrate Johnson's birthday, legal experts suggest the photo shows he may have broken the rules.
The Prime Minister has also faced backlash this week for accusing the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, of failing to prosecute child sex abuser Jimmy Savile.
Johnson's own finance minister, Rishi Sunak, said pointedly that he would not have made such a remark. Starmer has cast Johnson's comment as a ridiculous slur - and conspiracy theory - that shows Johnson is unfit to be British leader.
Munira Mirza, his head of policy who had worked with him for 14 years, resigned on Thursday over Johnson's claim.
Ministers presented three additional resignations which followed Mirza as evidence that Johnson was fixing the problems at Downing Street and "taking charge", though there remained considerable anger at Johnson within his own party.
But on Friday an eighth Conservative member of parliament, Aaron Bell, stated publicly that he had lost confidence in Johnson and submitted a formal letter calling for him to go.
"The breach of trust that the events in No. 10 Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, make his position untenable," Bell said.
To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 360 Conservative MPs in parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party's 1922 Committee.
Letters can also be submitted in private, and the total number is not made public until there are enough to trigger a leadership vote.
Leading rivals within the Conservative Party include Chancellor of the Exchequer Sunak, 41, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 46.
A spokesman for Johnson said the resignations of the prime minister's three top aides - his chief of staff, principal private secretary and director of communications - had been agreed in advance of Mirza's departure after the publication of a report into the alleged lockdown-busting parties that cited "serious failures of leadership".
Asked if Johnson had lost control of his administration, the spokesman said: "No." He added the prime minister had addressed Downing Street staff earlier on Thursday to thank those leaving and to acknowledge that change was challenging.
While opposition parties and some of Johnson's own lawmakers have called on him to quit, there is concern that toppling a British leader at this juncture would leave the West weakened as it faces a potential military crisis in Ukraine.
With inflation soaring at the fastest rate in 30 years, anger at the government is likely to deepen before local elections in May.
A snap poll by YouGov conducted on Jan. 31 showed that 63 percent of voters wanted Johnson to resign, though another YouGov poll showed just 31 percent thought he would resign.
Asked what was going on in Downing Street, junior energy minister Greg Hands told Sky: "Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted."
"This is the prime minister taking charge."
Newshub. / Reuters
