Hypocrite Boris Johnson under heavy fire
It says much about the crisis confronting Boris Johnson that his approval rating among voters is at 24 per cent, about where Theresa May was when she was booted out of office in 2019. But as dismal as that reality is for the British Prime Minister, it is even worse when viewed in the context of a new YouGov poll for The Times published on Thursday. It shows the opposition Labour Party under its wooden, uncharismatic leader, Sir Keir Starmer, a dour former director of public prosecutions, has opened up a 10-point lead over Mr Johnson’s Conservatives, the biggest such gap for Labour since 2013. That Mr Johnson is in deep political trouble is irrefutable. The immediate crisis may be the damaging controversy over the so-called “bring your own booze” party with 100 invitees that he attended in the garden of 10 Downing Street in May 2020. At the time, Britain was in full Covid lockdown, with ordinary citizens confined to their homes and permitted to meet only one person outdoors.
After days of obfuscation and his usual bluster and banter, Mr Johnson finally admitted in the House of Commons on Monday that he was wrong to attend the event. “I know that millions of people have made extraordinary sacrifices in the last 18 months. I know the rage they (the people) feel with me and with the government I lead when they think that in No.10 the rules are not being followed,” he conceded. But the rare admission of wrongdoing extracted from him has done little to calm public outrage and fury in the Tory party. The Scottish leader of the party, David Ross, has described Mr Johnson’s position as “untenable” and demanded his resignation. He has been joined by some leaders of the Conservatives’ powerful 1922 Committee, which plays a pivotal role when leadership changes occur, overseeing the process of telling an incumbent leader it’s time to go, and organising the election of a successor.
Mr Johnson’s position may not yet be at that stage. In the House of Commons on Wednesday, he rebuffed demands by Sir Keir for him to resign. One of his closest supporters, cabinet minister Michael Ellis, insisted the Prime Minister “is going nowhere”. But with polls showing two-thirds of the British public believe Mr Johnson should resign, there is deepening apprehension among Conservative MPs as they look to the next election, due in 2024. It is not just public outrage over the so-called “partygate” scandal that is prompting their anxiety. As The Times noted: “This is (just) the latest, but far from sole, example of Mr Johnson’s disinclination to observe the proprieties of office. Mr Johnson has a reliable indifference to standards of behaviour that most public people would regard as axiomatic in their own lives, let alone those occupying high office. To protect the health of others, ordinary citizens avoided mixing with friends and family. Many have had to bid farewell from a distance to loved ones dying in hospital wards and care homes. Concerts, plays, conferences and religious services were long put in abeyance. Yet Mr Johnson and his colleagues believed the rules were not for them, but for others.”
Such criticism is part of a wider perception of sleaze and corruption at the heart of Mr Johnson’s government that includes a “humble and sincere” apology last week to Lord Geidt, the government’s ethics adviser, for withholding information from an inquiry into who paid for the refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street apartment. December’s defeat in the North Shropshire by-election, a seat the Tories had held for 200 years, left no doubt about the extent to which Mr Johnson and his government were on the nose. If he is to survive, he must change his ways and clear up his scandal-plagued administration. With polls as they are, Mr Johnson clearly has a major battle on his hands to regain support within the Tory party and the broader electorate. When rusted-on Tory commentators describe his parliamentary performance as “tragic”, he should be in no doubt about how much trouble he is in.
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