The most brutal line in Sajid Javid’s resignation speech

Sajid Javid’s resignation in the Commons just now was coldly brutal. He’s had some practice, which he acknowledged, given this is the second time he has resigned in protest from Boris Johnson’s government. The first personal statement he gave was critical, but this one was terminal. He said ‘treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months’ and that as Health Secretary he had repeatedly given Johnson the benefit of the doubt over partygate and other scandals.

The theme of his statement was the damage that Boris Johnson continuing as Prime Minister is doing to the Conservative party. Javid complained about the way colleagues had been expected to go out on the airwaves and use ‘lines that don’t stand up, or don’t hold up’, and the impact on MPs who have to ‘bear the brunt of constituents’ dismay in their inboxes, and at the doorstep in recent elections’.