Johnson not first to be toppled by own party, these ex-PMs faced same fate

UK PM Boris Johnson on Thursday (July 27) stepped down from the post of leader of the Conservative Party. A hunt has begun for a new leader from within the party who will become the next prime minister. Prior to his resignation, Johnson government faced a flurry of resignations. His own colleagues in the Conservative Party have been against him. He is not the first Conservative leader to be toppled by his own party. Some of previous British prime ministers have suffered this fate too.

Margaret Thatcher

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Margaret Thatcher was Britain's longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century. She was forced to step down in 1990 after a cabinet revolt. She had narrowly won first round of leadership ballot but later accepted that her position had become untenable.

Although she had won a third term by a landslide in 1987, her introduction of a universal "poll tax" payable by every adult regardless of income was met with violent opposition.

She also faced deep opposition within her cabinet for staunchly fighting having closer ties with Europe.

John Major emerged as the new PM after voting among the Tories.

Iain Duncan Smith

Duncan Smith, one of a cabal of right-wing eurosceptics dubbed "bastards" by Major, won the Conservative leadership in 2001, replacing William Hague after the party suffered another election defeat to Labour.

His surprise ascent was helped by Thatcher and her loyalists in parliament.

But the self-styled "quiet man" of UK politics struggled to hold his own against Labour's charismatic prime minister, Tony Blair.

By October 2003, the parliamentary party was despairing of Duncan Smith's inability to make any headway against Blair, despite huge public opposition to Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.

He lostconfidence vote.

Theresa May

Theresa May came to power after resignation of UK PM David Cameron folowing the shock referendum to leave European Union. May began negotiating Brexit terms but her attempts for "soft" Brexit were shot down by hardline Brexiteers within the Conservative party.

May called a snap general election in June 2017. It proved a disastrous bet.

She survived a confidence vote called by Conservative rebels in December 2018.

But after her Brexit deal was rejected in the House of Commons for a fourth time, including by dozens of Conservative rebels, her leadership was mortally weakened.

(With inputs form agencies)

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