Is the end Nigh for Boris Johnson?

If Boris Johnson thought that the problems besetting him would fade away once the British public came out the other end of the festive holiday period full of merriment and good cheer, he could not have been more wrong.

Two weeks into the new year, yet another damaging revelation about his government’s disregard for its own lockdown rules has emerged. An email obtained by ITV News revealed that the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds, invited over a hundred Downing Street staff to a ‘bring your own booze’ party. At the time, 20 May 2020, Britain was still in its first lockdown to combat the Covid 19 pandemic. The public were still severely restricted in who they could meet, businesses forced to close, and most heartbreakingly, families reduced to watching funerals of their loved ones via a screen.

Reynolds’ breezy “make the most of the lovely weather” is naturally seen as a direct insult to those who have sacrificed so much since the onset of the pandemic, not least NHS key workers who have fought an exhausting battle over the last two years amid unprecedented demand on the health service.

This comes hot on the heels of leaked footage of Allegra Stratton’s jokey attitude to a lockdown busting Christmas party (followed by her resignation), and a picture of a ‘cheese and wine’ party in the Downing Street garden that Johnson attended.

At Prime Ministers Questions, Johnson was forced to apologise in a statement that immediately rung hollow with his contention that he felt that the party was a “work event” that was “technically within the rules.” To cries of derision from the opposition benches, Johnson weakly tried to obfuscate by suggesting that MPs should wait for the findings of Sue Gray - a senior civil servant – investigations into the various lockdown busting gatherings. The more cynical of Westminster watchers might suggest you only set up an investigation if you already know what its findings will be.

Indeed, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour opposition was withering in his response, calling the Prime Minister’s statement a “pathetic spectacle of a man who’s running out of road” before calling on him to resign.

While this would be expected of the Labour opposition – and indeed the SNP in Scotland – Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservative contingent at Holyrood, also called on Johnson to resign if it is found that he broke lockdown rules. This led to Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House, dismissing his obstensible colleague as a “lightweight figure” in a startlingly personal attack, an absolute gift for the SNP in future election literature while also perhaps betraying just how little English Tory MPs really value their Scottish counterparts.

Under pressure like never before, it feels more like a matter of when not if Johnson will be forced out, though it’s very hard to imagine Johnson resigning of his own accord. Rather, Johnson’s political future would seem to depend on enough Tory MPs sending in letters calling for a vote of no confidence. With the likes of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss conspicuous by their silence, it would seem that the main contenders to replace Johnson are limbering up for a leadership contest sooner rather than later.

All this goes on amid the backdrop of the Omicron variant which continues to strain the NHS to its limits; the days of people like Johnson clapping workers whilst hosting boozy parties in the Downing Street garden feel like a damning indictment of a culture of ‘one rule for us, another rule for them.’

The preservation of which may be the only thing Johnson’s government truly excels at.

PoliticsFrancesco Bonfanti