“I hope he never returns”

Opinions among Britons are divided after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation.

Some already miss him.

Others hope they will never have to see him again.

The pressure eventually became too harsh on Boris Johnson, who on Thursday morning took a seat in front of 10 Downing Street to announce that he will resign this autumn as Prime Minister and party leader for the Tories.

In the town of Chester, just on the border with Wales and a couple of miles south of Liverpool, residents were far from agreeing on whether Johnson’s decision was right or not. TT talked to some of them, and asked three questions:

+ What do you think about Boris Johnson resigning?

+ How do you see his time in power?

+ Who would you like to see as a successor?

Enid Callahan, 71, retired:

– It makes me sad, I did not want him to resign. I think he has done a good job. He has made some mistakes, but he has not made them on his own, right? I think they have been on him extra much because of “partygate” and all that. They blame him for everything that happens in the world.

– I think he has done really, really well. With Brexit, with covid and most recently with Ukraine.

– There is no one I see will be able to replace him. No one with his charisma. He is very, very smart and good at what he does.

Beryl Dale, 65, retired:

– I think it’s a shame in a way, because he has a lot of positive sides. But his fall has become inevitable in recent months. He should have been honest instead of sending people who were forced to tell a lot of lies. He’s made fun of himself a little. He’s a type of character you can not really dislike, so it’s sad. You can not continue in that way and treat people like fools. It’s a shame. But he must go, he must go.

– Initially, he did very well. He usually says he gets things done, and he really does. It’s just these last few months, when he’s started lying completely unnecessarily.

– No, I do not really know. Maybe the Secretary of Defense (Ben Wallace).

Jasim Kakel, 48, unemployed:

– I’m incredibly happy that he’s resigning. I hope he never returns. I never want to see him again, not on TV, not in newspapers, not anywhere. He has destroyed this country.

– He has not done anything good for this country. Everything has become more expensive, not twice as expensive but three times as expensive. Life has become more difficult, because he has no idea what he is doing. He does not think of the people, he does not think of those who are old, disabled or unemployed. He does not think about how people should be able to survive.

– Anybody. Just not him. As long as it is not him, things will get better in this country.

Echo Cullingn, 21, cook, Chester:

– I am honestly quite happy. He has not been very good. I’m a little ashamed to call him Prime Minister. But I’m also a little worried about who’s going to take over after him. Because it can be someone who is better or someone who is even worse.

– I will not lie, he has not been great as Prime Minister. Especially how he handled the closure of the country. Other countries, like New Zealand … as soon as they got their first covid fall, they shut down completely. We still feel it and now the infection rates seem to be rising again. I would have liked a stricter lockdown, which would have been handled better.

– No, I actually do not know which candidates there are.