Boris Johnson has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and will step down as prime minister once his replacement has been found.
In a speech outside Number 10 Downing Street on Thursday, Mr Johnson announced that he is leaving after coming under enormous pressure from Cabinet MPs.
He said a timeframe for his departure would be made public next week.
He vowed to stay on in No10 until a new leader is found and pledged to give his replacement "as much support as I can" while admitting it was painful not to be able to see his ideas through.
"I have today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place," he said.
How long can he stay on as a caretaker leader?
Mr Johnson is not known as "Teflon" without good reason. Throughout his three-year term in Downing Street, he repeatedly defied conventional wisdom by surviving scandals that would have brought down most other politicians.
Before the announcement, a No10 source said Mr Johnson had made clear to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, that he wanted to stay on until the party conference in October. The process may not take that long. He did not say in his speech how long he expected to be in charge.
But opposition party leaders say he cannot continue to lead a government racked by a succession of scandals.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party would use a House of Commons motion to attempt to oust him if the prime minister tried to hang on. “He needs to go completely,” Sir Keir said. “None of this nonsense about clinging on for a few months."
Will he stop being an MP?
In his 891-word speech watched by Tory loyalists, Number 10 staff and his wife Carrie Johnson and their nine-month-old daughter Romy, Mr Johnson did not say he would be resigning as an MP.
Instead, he pledged to work with a future leader. “To that new leader I say, whoever she or he may be, I say I will give you as much support as I can," he said.
When former Conservative prime minister Theresa May stepped down in 2019 there was speculation she would quit as an MP. But she chose to remain in politics and continues to sit in the House of Commons.
What happens now?
Any Conservative MP is eligible to run to replace Mr Johnson as party leader. The winner of the leadership race becomes prime minister, without the need for a national election.
MPs would take part in a series of votes to whittle down the leadership contenders to the final two, before the pair face a ballot of the 200,000 signed-up members of the Tory party.
The final two are expected to be, like Mr Johnson, staunch Brexiteers. Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid, Penny Mordaunt, Nadhim Zahawi, Liz Truss and Dominic Raab are among the senior Tories expected to throw their names into the hat. Conservative MP Damian Green said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, will take part in the contest, and promised to support him.
The length of the contest is determined by the executive of the 1922 Committee in conjunction with the Conservative Party board. A new committee will be elected on Monday, allowing the timetable for the leadership race to be set.
How did it come to this?
After suffering 38 resignations from his government in the space of 24 hours, the Tory leader's tenure at 10 Downing Street was hanging by a thread on Wednesday evening, three years after he was elected prime minister.
The number of Tory MPs who quit government had risen to 59 on Thursday as Mr Johnson delivered his resignation speech to the nation.
Mr Johnson, known for his rule-breaking nature, has in recent months been dogged by scandals.
After weathering storms, his admission this week that he knew about a sexual allegation made against Chris Pincher when he appointed him to his government was too much to bear for even loyal Tory MPs.
Boris Johnson's controversial career - in pictures
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Boris Johnson has had an eventful time during his life in politics and journalism. Here, 'The National' looks back at his life in pictures. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson attends the coronation ceremony of Britain's King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in May. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson leaves his home to attend a televised evidence session in March in front of the Commons Privileges Committee. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address parliamentarians in Westminster Hall in February. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive at Westminster Abbey for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson he announces his resignation as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at a press conference in response to the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate at Downing Street in May 2022. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson reads the long-awaited report by senior civil servant Sue Gray into the Downing Street party scandal, in his Downing Street office in May 2022. Photo: Downing Street -
Mr Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in central Kyiv in April 2022. The British prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. AFP -
Mr Johnson watches an early morning police raid on a home in Liverpool as part of an operation to thwart drug dealing, in December, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister battles with his umbrella while with Prince Charles at The National Memorial Arboretum in July 2021, in Stafford, England. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and his wife before the Uefa European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium, London, in July last year. Getty Images -
The British prime minister with US President Joe Biden, European Council President Charles Michel, former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi during the G7 Summit in Cornwall, in June 2021. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with his wife Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding at Westminster Cathedral, in May last year. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Party candidate Jill Mortimer won a parliamentary by-election in May, 2021. Getty Images -
The prime minister after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at St Thomas' Hospital in London in March, 2021. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson after signing a Brexit trade deal with the EU in December 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson examines a vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 candidate vaccine, at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wrexham, Wales, in November 2020. Getty -
Mr Johnson demonstrating the two-metre distancing rule during his visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, in August 2020. PA -
In this photo, published alongside the Sue Gray report into the Partygate affair, Mr Johnson is seen at a gathering in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street on his birthday in June, 2020. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and former chancellor Rishi Sunak use hand sanitiser during a visit to the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant in June 2020, in east London, to see how they are getting their business ready to reopen as coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted in England. PA -
Mr Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds applaud key workers outside 10 Downing Street in May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room observing a minute's silence in April 2020 in a tribute to the health staff and key workers who died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA -
Boris Johnson appears on monitors for a meeting in March 2020. The prime minister chaired morning meetings on the coronavirus remotely from Number 11 Downing Street, while self-isolating after testing positive for the virus. Reuters -
Members of a family listen as BMr ris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from 10 Downing Street in March 2020, where he outlined the latest instructions to stay at home to help contain the Covid-19 outbreak. AFP -
Mr Johnson speaks to British troops stationed in Estonia during a one-day visit to the Baltic country in December 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds enter Downing Street as the Conservatives celebrate a sweeping election victory in December 2019. Getty -
Boris Johnson is greeted by staff at 10 Downing Street after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to form a new government in December 2012. PA -
Former US president Donald Trump and Mr Johnson arrive for a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. Getty -
The queen welcomes Mr Johnson as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, during an audience in July 2019. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson, then Britain's foreign secretary, stands in front of St Basil's Cathedral during a visit to Moscow's Red Square in December 2017. Getty -
Mr Johnson collides with a child during a Street Rugby tournament in Tokyo in 2015, held to mark Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup -
As mayor of London Mr Johnson competes in a tug-of-war in October 2015. Getty Images -
The Olympic Flag is passed from Mr Johnson to IOC President Jacques Rogge during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Getty Images -
Mayor of London Boris Johnson with Prime Minister David Cameron during the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron in Trafalgar Square, in August 2012. PA -
Boris Johnson gets stuck on a zip-line during a BT London Live event in Victoria Park in August 2012. Getty -
Mr Johnson and Lord Sebastian Coe cheer as a giant set of Olympic rings is displayed from Tower Bridge in June 2012, Getty Images -
Mr Johnson gestures attends a Harry Potter studio tour of Diagon Alley, at the Warner Brother Studios, London, in December 2011. AP Photo -
Mr Johnson at the launch of London's first cycle hire scheme in July 2010. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson with artists' impressions of the design for London's new Routemaster bus in May 2010. Getty Images -
The candidates to be mayor of London; Labour's Ken Livingstone, Conservative Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, being questioned on BBC's 'Newsnight' programme in April 2008. Getty Images -
Boris Johnson on the North Pier in Blackpool during the Conservative Party conference there in October 2005. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson at his desk in 2000 while he was a journalist for 'The Telegraph'. Getty Images -
Mr Johnson when he was president of the Oxford Union society speaking to the Greek minister for culture Melina Mercouri when she addressed the union. Reuters -
Boris Johnson in September 1979, at Eton School. Shutterstock
