Five Ministers Quit Government At Once As Boris Johnson's Premiership Nears The End

Local government minister Kemi Badenoch was among the five ministers to resign en-masse.

Boris Johnson’s time in Number 10 appears to be coming to an end after five of his ministers quit at once.

The mass resignation brings the total number of frontbenchers to have quit the government in the last 24 hours to 27.

That followed the revelation that the prime minister knew that a complaint of sexual harassment against Tory MP Chris Pincher was upheld before he made him deputy chief whip.

Kemi Badenoch, Neil O’Brien, Alex Burghart, Lee Rowley and Julia Lopez announced they were leaving their posts in a joint-letter to the prime minister.

It said: “It has become increasingly clear that the government cannot function given the issues that have come to light and the way in which they have been handled.

“In good faith, we must ask that, for the good of the party and the country, you step aside.”

The move came amid reports that both Michael Gove and Chris Heaton-Harris, the chief whip, have told the prime minister that he has lost the support of his MPs.

One former cabinet minister told HuffPost UK: “A number of people have but he still doesn’t seem to be listening.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.