Enough is enough, Sajid Javid tells Boris Johnson

Sajid Javid has said he cannot "risk my integrity" by continuing to defend the government, telling Boris Johnson "enough is enough".

MPs, including Mr Johnson, listened in silence as he set out the reasons for his resignation as health secretary.

He said he could not go on giving Number 10 the "benefit of the doubt" after Partygate and other scandals.

Something was "fundamentally wrong" with government, he claimed, and "the problem starts at the top".

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his own departure from government within minutes of the former health secretary, on Tuesday evening, and they have been followed out the door by a string of junior ministers.

Mr Johnson batted away calls to stand down at Prime Minister's Questions, saying he intended to "get on with the job" of governing, to howls of protest from the opposition benches.

But MPs fell silent as Mr Javid got to his feet to deliver his resignation statement.

He said he was "instinctively a team player" but added: "Treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months.

"I will never risk losing my integrity."

He added: "The events of recent months have made it increasingly difficult to be in that team.

"It's not fair on ministerial colleagues to go out every morning defending lines that don't stand up and don't hold up.

"It's not fair on my parliamentary colleagues, who bear the brunt of constituents' dismay in their inboxes and on the doorsteps in recent elections.

"And it's not fair on Conservative members and voters who rightly expect better standards from the party they supported."

Mr Javid said he was "personally assured at the most senior level" of Mr Johnson's team that there had been "no parties in Downing Street and no rules were broken" when the first stories emerged last year.

"So I gave the benefit of doubt. And I went on those media rounds to say that I'd had those assurances from the most senior level of the prime minister's team.

"Then we had more stories. We had the Sue Gray report, a new Downing Street team. I continued to give the benefit of the doubt."

He then turned to the row over former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, who has been suspended as a Tory MP over sexual misconduct allegations. which saw ministers being given inaccurate information by Downing Street.

Mr Javid said: "This week again, we have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we've all been told. And at some point we have to conclude that enough is enough.

"I believe that point is now."

He added: "I do fear that the reset button can only work so many times. There's only so many times you can turn that machine on and off before you realise that something is fundamentally wrong ... I have concluded that the problem starts at the top and I believe that is not going to change".

In an apparent message to members of the cabinet who have stayed, he said: "Not doing something is an active decision".

It would not be surprising if more junior ministers now heed Sajid Javid's call to go.

But he also attempted to shame cabinet colleagues who did not join him in resigning.

And he seemed to channel Sir Geoffrey Howe, who hastened Mrs Thatcher's political demise 32 years ago. Sir Geoffrey had talked about the conflict between loyalty to his leader and loyalty to is country.

In Sajid Javid's version, he said he had been walking a tightrope between loyalty and integrity.

And the former health secretary seemed to liken Boris Johnson to Donald Trump when he said that we have seen what happened in other democracies when divisions are entrenched.

He also made it clear in the bluntest of terms that he had been lied to over Partygate - he had been personally assured there had been no parties.

But it seems he is not ruling out a return to government under different circumstances.

He drew on his own background and how he overcome difficulties and barriers put in his way - he was not a quitter, he said.

And he defended his own role in government as health secretary.

But more immediately, he clearly wants Boris Johnson to follow him out of office swiftly.