powerful and when the herd moves it moves and my friends in politics no one is remotely indispensable and our brilliant darwinian system will produce another leader equally committed to taking this country forward through tough timesthe move was resoundingly welcomed in the opposition ranks and a large chunk of his own party with labour leader keir starmer declaring the resignation good news for the countrymany conservative mps however are critical of johnsons plan to continue in office for another few months until a new leader is in place after his authority is so clearly bruised and battered by his own former supportersbut johnson remains defiant even in apparent defeat and went ahead with appointing a series of replacement cabinet ministers to fill in the posts left vacant by angry former ministers including indianorigin tory mp shailesh vara as the new northern ireland secretarythe resignation decision finally came after days of intense political frenzy and a steady stream of exits from within the uk cabinet since tuesday and just minutes after johnsons newly appointed chancellor to replace rishi sunak wrote a scathing public letter calling for him to go nownadhim zahawi the iraqiorigin minister among the frontrunners to replace johnson in 10 downing street wrote prime minister you know in your heart what the right thing to do is and go nowhis demand followed over 50 resignations since johnsons apology on tuesday after days of changing messages from downing street over the hiring and handling of the nowsuspended chris pincher who quit as deputy chief whip in charge of tory party discipline last week after admitting drunken misconduct it comes in the wake of the partygate scandal of covid lawbreaking parties in downing street which had resulted in a noconfidence vote last month which johnson just about survivedhis resignation will now trigger a fierce leadership battle within the conservative party with mps in the process of putting themselves forward for the racegoanorigin uk attorney general suella braverman who chose not to resign from cabinet saying her legal role made it incumbent upon her to carry on had withdrawn her support from johnson and is among the first mps to stake a claim to contest the leadership electionothers expected to join the race include zahawi and foreign secretary liz truss with former chancellor rishi sunak and former health secretary sajid javid among some of the others seen as likely contendersindianorigin home secretary priti patel is also among the names touted along with uk defence secretary ben wallace among the more junior members tory mps penny mordaunt tom tugendhat and former foreign secretary jeremy hunt are the names doing the roundsjohnsons term as british prime minister will be remembered for setting the indiauk relations on the course of a comprehensive strategic partnershipwidely seen as an enthusiastic cheerleader for closer ties with india johnson had a palpably close bond with prime minister narendra modi someone he would often refer to as his special friend or khaas dostwith inputs from agencies