OTrr uth consequences

The descent of Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson’s lame ‘partygate’ excuses have been mocked by quiz show hosts and sports pundits. But while the UK prime minister is accustomed to ridicule, the deep anger of families who suffered in the pandemic while obeying the rules will not go away. It’s now just a question of how long he survives …

After another dreadful week for Boris Johnson that was dominated by news of yet more rule-breaking parties at No 10, the comedian Andy Zaltzman opened BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz last Friday by announcing his two teams. One he named “team apologise” and the other “team pack of lies”.

Zaltzman added: “This show is best listened to when not at work. If you are unsure whether you are at work or not at work, please check whether anyone you normally work with has turned up with a bottle of wine and is getting hammered.”

What followed was 20 minutes of relentless ridicule of the prime minister for trying to pass off a lockdown-busting bring-your-own-booze gathering for dozens of people in the garden of No 10 in May 2020 (which he attended with his wife), as a work event.

Half an hour later, over on Sky Sports’s Friday Night Football show, the pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were also getting in on the act. Asked about the rivalry between Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, who were about to face each other on the pitch, Neville replied with a straight face that such derby games often seemed like a “massive party”.

His somewhat awkward – though clearly prepared – allusion to political events in answer to a question about football allowed Carragher to carry on the gag. “This is not a party tonight. This is about work,” he said. “They’ve got to know the difference between work and a party,” he said.

Johnson, the politician once known for making the jokes, has become a national laughing stock.

The dizzying speed of the revelations, denials, admissions and apologies has left Tory MPs struggling to keep up. Many have been dreading returning to their constituencies.

They knew that “partygate” was damaging because Johnson had lost respect. But they were also aware it was much more serious than that for every Conservative: the stories about rule-breaking get-togethers had caused deep anger and – to those who had lost relatives or friends to Covid19 – intense anguish and pain. The mix was, potentially, politically lethal for the entire Conservative party.

To their horror, however, there was even worse to come that evening. A report would surface in the Daily Telegraph saying that No 10 staff had also held two bashes in Downing Street, lasting into the early hours, the night before Prince Philip’s funeral last April.

“When I heard that I thought when does it end? Does it ever?” said one former Conservative minister. “Just when you thought the latest awful episode might be behind us we are back on the same routine of trying to hide the truth.”

When they had to confront their constituents and their inboxes last Friday, Conservative MPs were shaken by the backlash. “The fact that they had parties before the royal funeral was what really set a lot of people off,” said one southern Tory MP.

Another Tory, from a northern seat, said his local councillors, who had been Johnson supporters, had summoned him to a meeting on Friday to express their disgust. The Tory councillors had voted for Johnson to be leader and had voted for Brexit. But they had turned against him. “I can accurately say my councillors are very pissed off,” he said. “They had been confident before all of this that we would hold our local councils in the

May local elections. Now they think we will lose because of his behaviour. They want Boris out. They are furious.”

Peter Aldous, Tory MP for Waveney in Suffolk, said the feedback from his constituents was “very largely very negative”.

Where 10 days before Aldous had been ready to give Johnson another chance, he was now close to concluding that he should go. He would wait until the publication of a report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray before finally deciding. “As matters stand at the moment, my view is that it would be best if he stood down, but I think we should wait for the report. An awful lot of people who voted Brexit do feel very badly let down.”

Another Tory MP said that if working-class Brexit supporters – who had largely stayed loyal to Johnson over recent months – were now deserting, the PM was in real trouble. “Quite a few of my colleagues still take the view that Boris won us the election and delivered Brexit so they say we should stay loyal. But if that coalition cracks among 2019 voters, those MPs could start to crack too.”

Last weekend most Tory MPs and many Conservative ministers were saying they, too, would wait for the Gray report before deciding whether to call for Johnson to go. As of last weekend, only a handful of backbenchers had done so.

But privately many admit they are holding off more because they believe they have to be seen to be observing “due process” than because they believe he should continue at No 10. “I think we do have to wait for the process to run its course, but I am clear he should go,” said one former minister.

Gray, a former head of ethics in the civil service who was appointed by Johnson to establish the facts about the Downing Street parties, was widely expected to conclude and publish her report this week. While her job was to establish what happened and not to suggest punishment or remedies for individuals, the word in Whitehall was that she was not about to hold back in her judgments.

One source who knows Gray well said suggestions that she would preside over any form of whitewash would prove wide of the mark. Rather, he expected her to make it clear that things went very wrong in No 10, that the government’s own Covid guidance was not adhered to,

‘It’s like watching a nature show where the animal is trapped; we know how it ends’

and that those responsible must take the blame. Gray, the source said, had been particularly dismayed at hearing of more parties via the media.

There are worries among backbenchers, however, that the period immediately after Gray publishes will be messy and protracted, and that Johnson and No 10 will try to spin anything short of a conclusion of lawbreaking, as a triumph.

The Tory MP and former health minister Dr Dan Poulter said that, with this in mind, he would like Gray to refer the results of her inquiry on to an independent authority that could advise on what action should be taken.

“We are in the extremely unusual situation where the prime minister is both under investigation and the arbitrator of that same investigation,” he said. “The prime minister would be poorly served in judging the final report himself, as it is very important for him and the high office he holds that the outcome of this process has credibility and cannot be brought into question. It would be better for Sue Gray to hand the completed investigation to either Lord Geidt or a panel of senior constitutional judges to allow them to pass judgement and make appropriate recommendations.”

But events could still spiral out of control for Johnson very fast. Last week Johnson admitted to parliament that he attended drinks in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020 but claimed he had not realised it was a social gathering.

On Monday, his former senior aide Dominic Cummings challenged that account. He said he personally told Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds – who told people in an email to “bring your own booze” – that the invitation broke the rules and claimed Reynolds replied: “So long as it’s socially distanced I think it’s OK, I’ll check with the PM if he’s happy for it to go ahead.”

Government is paralysed and the cracks are widening. The movements of Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the favourite to succeed Johnson, and foreign secretary Liz Truss are being picked over for what they reveal about their leadership ambitions.

Last weekend’s Opinium poll for the Observer brought devastating news for Johnson and the Tories. The least surprising finding is that Labour is now 10 points ahead of the Conservatives, who enjoyed comfortable leads just three months ago. More striking is that Johnson’s personal ratings have nosedived to levels equivalent to those of Theresa May at her lowest point.

Just 22% of people approve of the job Johnson is doing as prime minis minister. And 48% of Conservative vative voters at the 2019 election now say he should resign. Nor can he rely on n Brexit supporters – 46% of Tory Leave ave voters say he should quit. One former er adviser to a Tory cabinet minister said d he believed it would not end well for r Boris Johnson. “It is like watching one of those nature programmes where re the animal is trapped and we know how it ends. They may as well just get on with it before more damage is done. We all know it is over for Boris.” ” Observer