Alex Burghart Resigns as Skills Minister

Skills Minister Alex Burghart has resigned from his post. In a Tweet he said: “It is with great regret that I am today resigning as a Minister in the Department for Education – I am very grateful to the Prime Minister for having given me the opportunity to serve”.

Alex Burghart was Skills Minister from 17th September 2021 until earlier today (6th July 2022).Which is a total of 292 days! He resigned in a group letter of five other Ministers. The closing paragraph of the group letter says:

“However, 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.”

Yesterday (5th July) saw Rishi Sunak resign and be replaced by Nadhim Zahawi, and Michelle Donelan replace Nadhim as Education Secretary. However, Michelle has now also resigned! (7th July)

The mass exodus and mass resignations have been over how the Government has handled the Chris Pincher sexual misconduct allocations. Over the past couple of days it is hard to keep count on the number of resignations (and they keep rising). Even Robert Halfon, Chair of the Education Select Committee, and former Skills Minister said he has “lost confidence” in PM Boris Johnson.

So who knows what will happen next? As over 30 Ministers have resigned in the past 24 hours, it appears a lot of change is on the horizon.