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Boris Johnson said in a Sunday evening statement that he wouldn’t join the fight to become Britain’s next prime minister, all but guaranteeing that former U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak will get the top job at No. 10 Downing Street.
“I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time,” Johnson said. Though he claimed that he’d been “overwhelmed by the number of people” encouraging him to stand for leader of the Conservative Party, Johnson said he was standing down after failing to reach an agreement with his main rivals, Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons.
“You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament,” he explained.