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THE SUN SAYS

Boris Johnson has suffered more than three dozen front bench resignations – can he still deliver?

Can you really still deliver, PM?

IN barely 24 hours Boris Johnson has suffered more than three dozen front bench resignations, including the departure of his Chancellor and Health Secretary.

It is unprecedented for a Prime Minister to survive such a revolt by his or her own party.

Boris Johnson has suffered more than three dozen front bench resignations - can he still deliver?
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Boris Johnson has suffered more than three dozen front bench resignations - can he still deliver?Credit: The Mega Agency

Any normal PM would have stood outside the front door of No10 last night and resigned.

But Boris is not a normal politician — and has made clear he is fighting on.

He believes his 80-seat majority in 2019 gives him a mandate from the people, not his party, and he will have to be dragged out of No10 rather than voluntarily give up on his mission to level up and make the best of Brexit.

In effect he is arguing, not for the first time, that it is Parliament versus the people.

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And that he is on the people’s side — even if polls suggest the public has had enough of him.

His late night sacking of Michael Gove was plainly intended to show strength.

To many, it will look the act of a desperate man — unable to accept the game is up.

The Sun has huge admiration for Boris, who forged a special connection with our readers.

We have him to thank for the historic 2016 Brexit vote and for ensuring it was finally honoured four years later.

When he walked into No10 in mid-2019, Britain was being held to ransom by a rotten Remainer Parliament refusing to enact the 17.4million majority’s will.

He then broke the deadlock with an election landslide, simultaneously ­saving us from a Marxist, anti-Semitic Corbyn Government.

Got the big calls right

Within two months Covid struck, but his superb handling of the jabs rollout and the furlough saved countless lives and jobs.

Then he faced down Labour’s hysteria and lifted restrictions to lead us out of the pandemic nightmare before anywhere else in Europe.

He has since led the free world’s defence of Ukraine . . . and shattered the myth that Brexit would leave Britain diminished on the global stage.

Boris argues that on those big calls he got it right. We agree.

It’s a huge legacy — and all achieved in defiance of a firestorm of hate from left-leaning Remainers, amplified by the combined might of the BBC and other broadcasters, like-minded newspapers and left-wing social media giants.

All of that said, the PM cannot escape reality: By mishandling a string of Westminster scandals, most recently the Chris Pincher debacle, he has lost the trust of a sizeable rump of his party.

In our political system, that makes it near impossible for him to deliver the bold agenda the country needs to revive the economy and see us through the cost of living crisis.

Our readers need a strong PM brimming with the energy to deliver.

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Boris must ask himself if he honestly believes he can revive his battered authority and truly deliver for them.

If he can’t, he should go with dignity.

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