Rishi Sunak has announced he is resigning as Chancellor following health secretary Sajid Javid's resignation minutes earlier.

Writing on Twitter, Sunak, who is from Southampton and was educated at Winchester College, said: “I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

Winchester MP Steve Brine tweeted his support for both.

 

 

Before Sunak's departure, Sajid Javid resigned as Health Secretary.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, following last month’s vote of confidence he said “it is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership – and you have therefore lost my confidence too”.

The resignation comes as Boris Johnson has been forced into a humiliating apology over his handling of the Chris Pincher row after it emerged he had forgotten about being told of previous allegations of “inappropriate” conduct.

Mr Pincher quit as deputy chief whip last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members’ club, but Mr Johnson was told about allegations against him as far back as 2019.

Boris Johnson admitted “it was a mistake” to give scandal-hit former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher his government role and said: “I apologise for it.”