In December last year I wrote a post titled Anarchy in the UK about how Boris Johnson was in a heap of trouble because of a Christmas Party held at 10 Downing Street the year before. Since then things have only become worse for him.
Boris Johnson’s reign as UK Prime Minister may be terminal. Not because of the utter shambles that is Brexit, nor his catastrophic handling of Covid but because of the duplicity in hiding details of a party held at 10 Downing Street during a time when everyone was meant to be isolating.
Someone high up has leaked an email invitation to the party. Johnson has been completely on the back foot ever since.
John Grace in the Guardian has this excoriating article where he states that the essence of the defence offered by Johnson is that he is catatonically stupid. From the article:
So anyway, he and his then fiancee – Carrie always came along to work meetings – coincidentally turned up at the party that wasn’t a party, even though they hadn’t seen the invite, and stayed for 25 minutes just because it seemed rude not to. He discussed a few work matters before going back to his flat and remembered thinking how brilliant it was that so many people were staying late to work outdoors over a few bevvies.
And he hadn’t even thought the party was a party when he saw the staff clearing up the empties from the flower bed the following morning. Indeed it was only when Dominic Cummings had mentioned last week that the party might have actually have been a party that it occurred to him the party could have been a party after all. He now bitterly regretted everything – most of all, getting caught – and all he was asking was that people gave him a bit of wriggle room before Sue Gray submitted the findings to her investigation. Hopefully she would be as gullible as he imagined everyone else to be.
None of which cut any ice with Keir Starmer. This PMQs may have seemed like the most open of goals for the Labour leader but he still needed to stick the ball in the net in front of a packed Commons’ chamber. Which he did six times. Johnson was pathetic: after months of denial, was this the best he could come up with? A dog ate my homework excuse would be less insulting. The prime minister had attended the party. He had broken lockdown rules. He had misled parliament when he had said how sickened he was about other No 10 parties. The country thought he was a pathological liar. He needed to resign.
Boris visibly crumpled. Unlike Prince Andrew, he knew what it was like to sweat. Back in No 10 he had managed to convince himself that his feeble explanation might be enough to get him off the hook. After all, he had a long history of getting out of tight situations by lying through his teeth. But now he could feel his optimism seeping away. He was fooling no one. Not even himself.
The historical context is important. The Guardian said this about arrangements at the time:
On that day Matt Hancock, then health secretary, had given a 5pm press conference urging people to stick to the rules and not take advantage of the good weather over the May weekend to socialise in groups.
At the time schools were still shut and pubs and restaurants were closed, with strict controls on social mixing. More people had been allowed to return to their workplaces, but guidance said social distancing of 2 metres should be followed at all times and “only absolutely necessary participants should attend meetings and should maintain 2-metre separation throughout”.
In Parliament Labour leader Keir Starmer completely undermined Johnson’s credibility.
It is not the lying or the hypocrisy that will dethrone him although if there is proof of lying to Parliament then convention dictates that he should go. With sufficient linguistic dexterity he may be able to avoid this particular allegation.
The aspect that will end is reign is slumping polling support and nervousness amongst Tory MPs facing the prospect of losing their god given right to be MPs with all of the incidental financial benefits that brings. And after a long period of dominance the Tories are now well and truly on the back foot with the latest YouGov poll having Labour on 38%, 10 points ahead of the conservatives and with Starmer on 35% support as preferred Prime Minister compared to Johnson’s 23%.
It seems that Johnson may not recover from this. And whoever the leaker is now would be a great time to leak news of further gatherings which, based on events to date, I am sure there were.
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