Five aides of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit within 24 hours

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday was fighting for his premiership following an exodus of senior aides and calls from within his own party for him to step down.

On Friday morning, Elena Narozanski, Boris Johnson’s special advisor on women and equalities, became the fifth adviser to walk out the door within 24 hours, according to British media reports.

She followed other top aides who quit Downing Street on Thursday as the fallout from a scandal dubbed “Partygate” continues to engulf the UK government and raise questions about the PM’s leadership. Munira Mirza, his head of policy who had worked with him for 14 years, resigned on Thursday over Johnson’s claim that Labour leader Keir Starmer failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile during his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Johnson’s finance minister, Rishi Sunak, said pointedly that he would not have made such a remark. On Thursday night, Johnson’s communications director, chief of staff, and private secretary all announced their resignations.

Those revelations raised questions about Johnson’s often chaotic style of leadership and have led to the greatest threat to him since he took office. Johnson admitted that problems needed to be fixed at the heart of Downing Street, which serves as both his home and the nerve centre of the British state.

While opposition parties and some of Johnson's own lawmakers have called on him to quit, there is concern that toppling a British leader at this juncture would leave the West weakened as it faces a potential military crisis in Ukraine.