British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, accused of violating Covid-19 restrictions by throwing a party at the 10-Downing Street, faces the biggest challenge of his political career that has turned many of the Tory supporters against him and set the ball rolling for a vote of no-confidence.
In May 2020, Johnson blatantly violated the epidemic prevention measures and invited over 100 people to a “bring your own booze” party at his official residence.
Moreover, on April 16, 2021 – the eve of the funeral of Britain’s Prince Philip – Downing Street staff held two parties at a time when Covid-19 restrictions banned indoor gatherings in the UK.
According to a report of The Guardian this party-gate has made Johnson’s leadership face its most serious challenge yet., Johnson is likely to be “ousted within two weeks,” bringing his premiership to a “disastrous end.” Although Johnson has drawn up an “operation save big dog” plan, trying to help himself out of the dilemma, the Huffington Post reported that “the dog appeared to be out of the kennel.”
Having initially said in December he was “sickened” at the prospect of Downing Street employees ignoring social restrictions, the prime minister found himself sidestepping questions about whether he attended an event on May 20, 2020 after an explosive leaked email provided evidence that over 100 staff were invited to attend the bash and “bring your own booze”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Johnson did address the issue, confirming that he had attended the garden gathering for around 25 minutes with the intention of thanking his staff for their efforts during the pandemic while claiming, somewhat improbably: “I believed implicitly that it was a work event, I sincerely apologise for any misjudgements,” he said.
The opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer described the prime minister as a “pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road” and “without shame,” derided his mea culpa as “worthless” following “months of deceit and deception” and called on him to resign, the seething disdain in his voice drawing chuckles of laughter from across Parliament while members of Boris Johnson’s frontbench sat stoney-faced behind their Covid masks.
“Why does he think the rules do not apply to him?” Sir Keir asked, incredulous, voicing the thoughts of millions.
Both Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey and the Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford in the Commons, likewise called on Boris Johnson to “do the decent thing and resign”.
According to the Independent, “Support for the embattled prime minister from Cabinet colleagues like Deputy PM Dominic Raab, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has since been issued, without a great deal of evident enthusiasm.”
According to the pollsters Savanta ComRes, a clear majority (66 per cent) said the prime minister should now resign, including 42 per cent of those who cast their vote for the Conservatives at the 2019 winter election.
It represents a 12-point increase on a previous snap poll by the organisation in December in the wake of separate allegations of a party held at PM house during the winter of 2020 when London faced tough Covid restrictions.
When asked whether Boris Johnson was still an “asset” to the Tory party, those who voted for the party in 2019 were equally divided, with 45 per cent saying he was no longer an asset and 45 per cent suggesting he remained an asset.
According to Daily Mirror, Six Tory MPs have called publically for Johnson to quit in the wake of the Downing Street party scandal.
Douglas Ross, Andrew Bridgen, Sir Roger Gale, William Wragg, Tim Loughton and Caroline Nokes all say it’s time for a new leader after the PM admitted spending 25 minutes at a May 2020 garden party.
Gale, who has been a longstanding and vocal critic of the Johnson, became the first conservative to declare he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the prime minister. He said, “I put in a letter to Sir Graham Brady (chairman of the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party in the UK House of Commons) after this incident, because that gave a message to me that this was not the kind of leadership that I believe the Conservative Party needed.”
The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ross said Johnson’s position was “no longer tenable” following the PM’s admission that he attended a “bring your own booze” drinks event at Number 10 at the height of the UK’s first national lockdown in May 2020.
Confirming he had submitted a letter, he said “I don’t want to be in this position, but I am in this position now, where I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives.”
The Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Bridgen said he had handed in a letter to Sir Graham as Johnson’s position was now “untenable” following the Downing Street ‘party-gate’ scandal.
“’Leadership is not just about the job title, or even making big decisions – it is equally about having a moral compass, of knowing not just right from left but right from wrong,” he wrote in an opinion piece in The Telegraph.
The minister who represents the Romsey and Southampton North constituency, Nokes has called for Johnson to go, saying he is “damaging” the Conservative Party.
“The prime minister, when it came to winning that election in 2019, did a fantastic job but now, regretfully, he looks like a liability. He either goes now or he goes in three years’ time at a general election,” she told ITV.
The MP for Hazel Grove, Wragg who is also the vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs, has also said the PM’s position is now “untenable”.
“I don’t believe it should be left to the findings of a civil servant to determine the future of the prime minister and indeed who governs this country. I think it is for the Conservative Party, if not the prime minister, in fact, to make that decision, and to realise what is in the best interest, so that we can move forward both as a party and a country,” he told BBC Radio 4.
MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, Tim Loughton is demanding the prime minister step down. According to him, resignation is the only way to bring this whole unfortunate episode to an end.
On the face of it, it’s a small number – especially given 54 MPs need to send “no confidence” letters to the Tory 1922 Committee to trigger a leadership challenge.
But many more MPs are keeping quiet until after Sue Gray, the senior civil servant handed responsibility for untangling a string of Downing Street parties, returns her report on Downing Street parties.
The Sunday Times reports around 35 Tory MPs have submitted letters of no confidence, perilously close to the threshold.
At least 20 more letters of no confidence and the era of Johnson is over. The UK could be looking at another prime minister, the fifth in a little over 11 years.
Looking at history, the Conservative party is notorious for abandoning their leaders, the first sign of unpopularity and then they ditch their PM. It was seen with Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and then again with Theresa May in 2018. Is Johnson doing any better? The numbers in the aforementioned polls do not suggest so.
In such tough times, we expect leaders to lead by example. Johnson has done the opposite, he compared the Covid-19 to the flu, he reportedly considered letting the virus spread for herd immunity and he partied in his office after putting his people under lockdown. Apology or not, Boris Johnson’s post-party hangover is not going anywhere.
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