The British Prime Minister overwhelmed by the holiday scandal. Opposition leader: “Pathetic, leave or you will be kicked out.” Even the conservatives ready to abandon it
LONDON – The party is over for Boris Johnson. The prime minister tried yesterday to apologize in Parliament for the party organized in Downing Street garden in full lockdown, in May 2020, but he only his position worsened. “I implicitly thought it was a business event,” said Boris amidst the incredulous laughter of the deputies: but it was a party with dozens of guests who were even told to “bring the bottle”.
“It’s such a ridiculous thing, it’s actually offensive to the British public,” the Labor leader replied. Keir Starmer. “We are in front of the pathetic spectacle of a man who has come to the end of the race”, urged the opposition leader, who drew the logical conclusion: “It will be the public to chase him away, it will be his party to chase him away, or will he do something honest and resign? ” .
Because there really don’t seem to be any other avenues left for Boris. None of the deputies from his party came to his aid in the courtroom, instead, merely making evasive interventions: and a veteran of the Conservatives compared the situation of Johnson to the last days of Margaret Thatcher, when the Iron Lady had been abandoned by all and her authority had evaporated. “He’s cooked,” said another Tory deputy: but the stab was thrown by the leader of the Scottish conservatives, backed by several of his colleagues, who explicitly asked for the resignation of the premier. A scenario that Boris himself, in Parliament, did not rule out: when he was told to pack his bags, he replied that “we should not prevent the result of the investigation”, in reference to the independent investigation that is underway to ascertain whether Downing Street parties violated Covid regulations. The investigation is expected to close shortly and Johnson is unlikely to be exonerated: his departure from the scene could therefore be a matter of days, if not hours.
Boris may decide at this point to leave in hopes of being remembered as the leader who brought Brexit to fruition. Or his folks will accompany him to the door: because the conservatives’ relationship with the premier has always been of a utilitarian type, in the sense that he was chosen because he was a winner, not because he was loved. Johnson has no real friends, there are no “Johnsonians” in the match: and when it turns from ace in the hole to a burden, it is better to drop it immediately. One absence stood out yesterday in Parliament: that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, who thus took to physically distance himself from a dying premier. Because the Chancellor (ie the Minister of the Treasury) is the most accredited successor: and it is no coincidence that his sponsor is the Machiavellian Dominic Cummings, the former “Rasputin” of Boris who was badly hunted at the end of 2020.
Cummings, who had been the architect of Brexit, has sworn vengeance: and many suspect his hand is behind the revelations that caused Boris’ downfall. The premier’s fall comes after a trickle of news, expertly filtered to the press, on the numerous illegal parties held in Downing Street during 2020, when the rules forbade it, as well as on hidden financing for the renovation of the private apartment of the premier. Johnson had already been cornered for weeks
, so much so that he had not had the authority to impose new restrictions against Covid. Last night he looked like a finished man: and it’s just a matter of understanding how and when the curtain will fall.
January 12, 2022 (change January 12, 2022 | 22:03)
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