British PM Johnson: My job is to 'keep going', one more minister quit

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defied growing calls for him to step down on Wednesday, telling lawmakers he would "keep going" following a wave of resignations from his government including those of two key ministers. Johnson made the remarks in parliament in response to a question from a lawmaker in his own party who asked if the prime minister thought there were any circumstances in which he should resign. "Clearly, if there were circumstances in which I felt it was impossible for the government to go on and discharge the mandate that we've been given, or if I felt, for instance, that we were being frustrated in our desire to support the Ukrainian people ... then I would," Johnson told parliament.

"But frankly, the job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances when you've been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going," Johnson said. "And that's what I'm going to do." Johnson has suffered an exodus of ministers in just 24 hours and later faced an hours-long grilling from the chairs of the House of Commons' most powerful committees, including some of his most virulent critics in the Tory ranks. But the influential "1922 Committee" of non-ministerial Tory MPs is reportedly seeking to change the rules.

Meanwhile, Britain's financial services minister John Glen resigned on Wednesday in protest against Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Glen said in his letter to the prime minister that, he can no longer reconcile his commitment to the role and to the financial services sector with the complete lack of confidence in the PM's continuing leadership of the country. His resignation comes after finance minister Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid both announced their departures abruptly late on Tuesday.