The critical moments that cornered Boris Johnson since the Downing Street parties were uncovered during confinement
Cameron, May and now Johnson. The news about the resignation of the British prime minister completes the triplet of resignations of the last leaders of Downing Street, all members of the conservative party. Since the first of them, in 2016, the British government has been in a critical situation led by Brexit and affected by crises such as the coronavirus or the war in Ukraine. But of all the falls, Johnson’s seems the most abrupt and pronounced, taking off thanks to a historic absolute majority in 2019, and crashing with a series of controversies around Johnson that have led to the resignation of 38 British government officials in less than 24 hours.
Controversies that have precipitated him:
– The first of the scandals occurred in October 2021, when Owen Paterson, Member of Parliament (MP) for North Shropshire, used his position for the benefit of two companies for which he worked as an advisor. The compensation for this help, apart from his parliamentary salary, exceeded 100,000 euros. For this Paterson was forced to resign in November, which resulted in a scandal about the Conservative party and around the Johnson administration.
– In that same month, before the Confederation of British Industry, the prime minister gave a speech where his leadership in the party was a vital part of it, and where the highlight was his histrionic statements about a Peppa Pig theme park that fell on deaf ears, in addition to his own comparison with Moisés and an onomatopoeia that the politician made of an electric car. A speech that left those present and Johnson himself very confused, who even stopped the speech to reorganize his words.
– At the end of it, one of its most prominent controversies arose, since the English medium ‘Daily Mirror’ uncovered the Christmas party held at the British leader’s residence in 2020, during the confinement established by the conservative government due to the pandemic. This measure included the prohibition of Christmas parties, and according to the BBC, the one on December 24 was not the only one of those months.
– In December the controversy centered on former Downing Street spokeswoman Allegra Stratton. The ITV television network exposed some images where a press conference rehearsal of the politician’s former press chief was seen, with quite controversial statements about the aforementioned Christmas party. In them she explained, in a humorous tone, that said event was actually a business dinner and that social distance was not respected. The next day Stratton summoned the media to apologize, stating that “this event should not have happened at that time”, to resign from her position after completing the appearance. Johnson showed his anger at the posted video and condemned the network for it.
– The problems did not stop for the conservative party, since the next day, December 9, 2021, the news broke that they had been fined for not making a donation of about 79,000 euros public. These were sent by a company owned by a former Tory leader, and used for the Prime Minister’s home renovations. From this moment on, the situation reached a limit state and led to a break between the Prime Minister and various representatives of the British Chamber.
– The meetings of the Courts in the United Kingdom changed course and turned against Boris Johnson. Days after this scandal, the members of Parliament against the measures proposed by Johnson grew exponentially, reaching 100 votes against the sanitary restrictions. In the end the prime minister achieved his goal thanks to the support of the Labor Party, but it was a Pyrrhic victory in the support of the politician externally and internally. Furthermore, a short time later the party lost the seat in the aforementioned area of North Shropshire, which had been under Tory rule up to that point. It also highlights the resignation of the cabinet member assigned to investigate the controversial parties, after discovering that some celebration had taken place in his own office; and of the politician appointed to negotiate Brexit, who had conflicts with the restrictions that Johnson imposed.
– At the end of December, the population was able to learn more details about other events held by the British government during the worst months of the covid-19 crisis. ‘The Guardian’ first published a photo of several members of the party tasting wine and cheese at a party held in May 2020, amid the lockdown. In addition, the ITV television network reported on another appointment in those days on Johnson’s agenda, which included 100 people at a party with alcoholic beverages.
– In January 2022, the politician faced his first government control session in which he apologized after having previously denied his involvement with the events on seven occasions, but avoided any questions related to the parties. From that moment the Labor Party asked for his head and the internal tensions of the party began to be evident. All this culminated in the motion of censure presented in June by several members of the conservative party, in which Johnson managed to keep his position with a poor result: 211 votes in favor and 148 against the ‘premier’.
– The final straw came in February, after the appointment as parliamentary treasurer of Christopher Pincher, former Minister of State for Europe and the Americas. The point is that months later several reports came out stating that Pincher would have gone too far with several men in a private club, in a deep state of intoxication. In addition, years before the politician had already had a similar event with an Olympic rower. This led to a new resignation, with their respective apologies, in the conservative party at the beginning of last June.
This would not be another controversy, since it triggered the fall of the ‘tory’ dominoes. Economy Minister Rishi Sunak, Health Minister Sajid Javid, two of the most respected politicians on Johnson’s team, announced their resignations last Tuesday. These resignations were quickly joined by those of other colleagues: Will Quince, Deputy Secretary of State for Families and third in the ministerial order, private parliamentary secretaries and commercial envoys. The sum of members of the conservative party who have left their post reaches 38 people, and other ‘tories’ such as the housing minister, Michael Gove, took advantage of this moment to ask the prime minister for his resignation since “the game had reached its finish”.
#Brexit #shows