10 other mps from the party have so far announced their intentions to run. now on bbc news, dateline london with shaun ley. hello and welcome to the programme which brings together leading uk columnists with foreign correspondents who write, blog and broadcast from the dateline: london. britain s conservatives like to think of themselves as belonging to the natural party of government. this week, it s looked more like the natural party of farce. two cabinet ministers announced publicly that they d had enough of borisjohnson. mrjohnson had not had enough of himself and for 48 hours, he dug in his heels, refusing to resign as prime minister, even as, one after another, members of his government resigned. in all, five cabinet level and 23junior ministers quit because he wouldn t, along with a couple of dozen parliamentary aides. on wednesday evening, the prime minister sacked one of his oldest allies who d told him to go. another, who d accepted promotion from him just the night
to take over from borisjohnson as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. magnificent seven for novak djokovic as he overpowers nick kyrgios to maintain his domination of wimbledon. in the last few minutes, president gotobaya rajapaksa of sri lanka has confirmed he will resign after having fled when crowds stormed his palace. it s not clear whether, as suggested, he will return to to the country this week to formally quit. hundreds of protesters furious about corruption and economic mismangement are still in the presidential house and grounds. they say they won t leave until mr rajapaska has gone. our south asia correspondent, rajini vaidyanathan, reports from colombo. these scenes would have been unthinkable days ago. sri lanka s seat of presidential power now a sightseeing destination. security nowhere to be seen, as thousands push their way into a palace taken over by protesters. this is a really surreal moment for sri lanka. a building that is normally heav