Jacinda Ardern knew the right time to quit – I wish our leaders did too
‘I’m leaving,’ Jacinda Ardern said in a press conference earlier this week, announcing that her time as Prime Minister of New Zealand was coming to an end.
She added: ‘Because with such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.’
If only more politicians had the self-awareness and humility to know when to step down. To give the job their all but have the cognisance to know when their all is no longer sufficient.
I couldn’t help but wish our own former PMs had bowed out with such grace.
If only Liz Truss had thrown in the towel a little earlier. Granted, her premiership was remarkably short – at a record low of just 45 days – but it was pretty clear from the beginning that her ship was destined to be sunk by an iceberg lettuce.
Boris Johnson clung to his position as tightly as the harness clung to his crotch on the day he got stuck on a zip-line.
That image of him suspended in mid-air – still smiling and waving his plastic Union flags in a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that things hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped – is permanently seared into my brain.
He was waiting for someone to come and get him down because there was no way he would do it himself. There couldn’t be a better metaphor for his time in No 10.
Ardern will be stepping down as PM no later than 7 February, but will continue in her role as an MP until the election later in the year. Beyond that, she said she had no future plans – other than to spend time with her family and suggested she may finally get married to her partner, Clarke Gayford.
Her critics are already claiming she stepped down for no other reason than to avoid defeat in the next election, seemingly delighted with their ‘gotcha’-style analysis.
It’s true that the popularity of her Labour Party has waned in recent months, with support for Ardern hitting a low of 29%. But even if this was the sole reason for her departure – as her critics claim – at least she had the decency to take note.
When a YouGov poll found that 73% of the UK population thought Boris Johnson was doing a bad job as Prime Minister, it took him almost six more months to throw in the towel.
Did he step down immediately in order for the party to swiftly find a replacement? Of course not.
A long leadership contest meant he had another two months in the job before officially stepping down. A window of time in which he went on holiday twice and tried to use his Prime Ministerial privilege to get married at Chequers, even as the country was facing the biggest cost-of-living crisis in decades without knowing who was going to take the helm.
Boris is still a sitting MP, by the way.
But his constituents would be forgiven for not knowing it, as he jetted off on yet another holiday in October, only returning to the UK when he thought he might have another shot at PM.
Since his resignation speech in July 2022, Johnson has only voted twice. One of which was a vote of confidence in… himself.
Knowing when to bow out gracefully, and to do so in the best interests of the people you were elected to serve, is the sign of a great leader.
Not long after Jacinda’s resignation speech, the discourse quickly turned sexist – as it sadly so often does.
BBC News ran a headline reading ‘Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?’, which was soon taken down following an understandable backlash. Such a question is never asked of male politicians – because it is presumed.
Ardern welcomed her now four-year-old daughter while she was in office. She continued in her role as leader of a nation and an inspirational hero. She already had it all.
Boris Johnson, however, had two children during his premiership (on top of his existing five), but I don’t recall seeing people suggesting whether he eventually stepped down because the responsibility of raising his children and leading a country was too much to handle.
There are many things I will take away from Ardern’s time as Prime Minister of New Zealand, despite the fact that I have never even visited the country of which she was leader.
She was a person with integrity, kindness and compassion, qualities too often lacking in people who have positions of power.
Her relatability was profound, even in her resignation speech. Knowing when the time is right to take a step back, without seeing it as a form of failure, is a lesson we can all learn – myself included.
There have been many times in my life that I’ve viewed quitting as a loss rather than a win. But hindsight has proven that saying no to one thing leads to more opportunities to say yes to others.
Whether that be in my professional life or my personal life, learning to walk away from something that no longer fits – that I was no longer right for – has only ever meant that I was one step closer to finding where I belonged.
Jacinda has achieved many things during her time in office, as well as inspiring many around the world to lead with compassion and self-awareness.
It seems only fitting that she should resign in the exact same manner as she led.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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MORE : Like Jacinda Ardern, we quit our jobs because we didn’t have ‘enough in the tank’