Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he will stand down in an address to the nation outside No 10 Downing Street. 

Boris Johnson began a reshuffle of his Cabinet shortly before the announcement as calls grew for him to bow out now rather than remain in a caretaker role.

The PM announced he will quit as Tory leader after ministers and MPs made clear his position was untenable, with support crumbing around him in recent days.

He said it was “clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader” as he announced his resignation.

Mr Johnson says he will remain as Prime Minister until a successor is in place, expected to be by the time of the Conservative Party conference in October.

But critics of the PM have suggested he should not be allowed to stay in office until the autumn.

He said he had tried to persuade his Cabinet it would be “eccentric” to change Prime Minister now but “I regret not to have been successful in those arguments”.

Boris Johnson said his arguments to stay in power were rejected due to a “herd instinct” at Westminster and said it was “painful” not to be able to deliver on his plans.

He said: “In the last few days, I tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in midterm after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.

“I regret not to have been successful in those arguments and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.

“But as we’ve seen, at Westminster the herd instinct is powerful, when the herd moves, it moves.

“And my friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable and our brilliant and Darwinian system will produce another leader, equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times.”

Boris Johnson said he was “immensely proud of the achievements of this Government”, from getting Brexit done to getting the UK through the pandemic, and leading the West in standing up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.

“I want you to know how sad I am giving up the best job in the world, but thems the breaks," he added. 

“I want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting Conservative for the first time, thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979.

“And the reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019.

“And of course, I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this Government.”

More to follow.