UK political crisis live updates: 'No major policy changes until new leader chosen', UK's Johnson tells ministers

Boris Johnson lasted just three years as British prime minister. Weakened by scandals, he refused for months to resign but on Thursday was poised to quit, forced by his own colleagues.After Theresa May's resignation, Brexit figurehead Johnson is elected head of the Conservative party in July 2019 after a landslide victory over foreign minister Jeremy Hunt.He is appointed prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II, promising a swift exit from the European Union.

Russian officials lined up to celebrate the downfall of Boris Johnson on Thursday, with a leading tycoon casting the British leader as a "stupid clown" who had finally got his just reward for arming Ukraine against Russia. Johnson was expected to announce his resignation after he was abandoned by ministers and his Conservative Party's lawmakers who said he was no longer fit to govern. The Kremlin said it too was no fan of the British leader, whose parents named him Boris after a White Russian emigre.

After more han 50 government ministers or aides of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday, he agreed to step down.The British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has also cut short her trip to a G20 meeting in Indonesia to return to London, CNN quoted Britain's PA news agency as reporting on Thursday.

Two of the United Kingdom’s most senior ministers have resigned from the cabinet in the latest blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership. Health Minister Sajid Javid and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced their resignations within minutes of each other on Tuesday, plunging Johnson’s government into crisis weeks after the prime minister survived a no-confidence vote.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to resign Thursday after days of defections crippled the controversial leader and left him unable to govern.