His top political adviser leaves on a moral issue, but the other four pay for their role in the Downing Street mess
Five collaborators of Boris Johnson resigned from their positions on Thursday and this Friday, creating the space to renew the prime minister’s office, in some cases, and airing the bitterness in his environment, in others. The organization of allegedly illegal meetings in Downing Street and the Prime Minister’s response are the reasons for his departure.
Jack Doyle, director of communications and former journalist for the ‘Daily Mail’, leaves citing the stress that his family life has suffered in recent weeks. Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield will remain in his position until a successor is found, then perhaps return to the bench. Martin Reynolds, Boris Johnson’s private secretary, will probably return to the Foreign Office.
Those three resignations have been received by quite a few Conservative MPs as a sign that their leader is keeping his promise to solve the problems in Downing Street, which would have led to the grotesque saga about gatherings and parties during lockdowns. They also reveal instability. Doyle’s successor will be Johnson’s fourth communications director in his two-and-a-half-year tenure.
Munira Mirza’s resignation is different. She was the director of the Policy Unit, the group of advisers specialized in governance areas that articulates ideas and draws up lines of action for the prime minister. Mirza has been a prominent adviser to Johnson since his time as mayor of London. In her public letter to the prime minister, she justifies his departure on moral grounds.
At the presentation of civil servant Sue Gray’s mutilated report on the meetings last Monday, Johnson replied to Labor leader Keir Starmer’s harsh speech – focused on facets of the prime minister’s personality that would make him “unfit to govern” – alleging that Starmer “devoted himself to persecuting journalists, but not Jimmy Savile” when he was a state attorney.
Starmer was the director of the Crown Prosecution Service when the Police opened an investigation into illegal practices of journalists, settled with millions of pounds in compensation to victims. Four women reported Savile for sexual abuse when they were young. The flamboyant television star, feted by rulers and the royal family thanks to his fundraising campaigns for charitable causes, was promoted as ‘Sir’ by Margaret Thatcher.
Following his death, there were more than 450 allegations of sexual assault, by victims who were between the ages of 8 and 47 when they were abused. He was a man with fame and power, and the four women who denounced him did not want to personally support the actions of Justice. In these circumstances, the prosecutor’s attorney handling the case ruled that there was no possibility of bringing viable charges in court.
The spate of subsequent allegations against Savile prompted Starmer to investigate what had happened. It was discovered that the Police did not inform the four women individually that there were other complaints. Perhaps that knowledge would have encouraged them to testify. Starmer apologized publicly, published the full report of the internal investigation, created a structure of regional entities specialized in cases of sexual abuse of minors and panels of prosecutors and police to coordinate.
A “sectarian reference”
Johnson’s accusation provoked strong reactions. The spokesman for the Scottish SNP, Ian Blackford, was expelled that Monday for saying that the prime minister has misled Parliament, something that cannot be said in the House, but Johnson can accuse Starmer of not legally prosecuting a child molester and it does not happen any. Justice Minister Dominic Raab downplayed him, stating that he was a typical brawl between politicians.
Munira Mirza asked Johnson to rectify, because, he says in his letter, his words in Parliament were “an improper and sectarian reference to a horrendous case of sexual abuse of children.” The ‘premier’ clarified on Thursday that he does not accuse Starmer of being personally responsible for Savile evading those complaints, but his collaborator had demanded an apology. The Minister of Finance, Rishi Sunak, also distanced himself from the Prime Minister, stating that he had not pronounced the words of the head of government.
On this Friday morning, a Mirza collaborator in the Policy Unit, Elena Narozanski, specializing in women’s policies, equality and extremism, in addition to the work of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports, left her position. It is affirmed that there are more collaborators thinking about resignations and the feeling is recreated that Johnson has not freed himself from the ‘partygate’ after a week of domestic and international initiatives.
In fact, Mirza’s departure would have precipitated the ‘premier”s plans for the reform of his cabinet after the failures of “leadership” and “excessive alcohol consumption” were revealed. Johnson wanted to contain the effects of the resignations and give a sense of control over the growing instability in his office and that is why this Friday he gathered his employees to assure them that “change is good” and that, for him, working in Downing Street is quite a “privilege”. He also sent his fellow ‘Tories’ – 17 of them have requested a confidence motion against him – a message promising to listen to them through a “hotline” and a change in the functioning of his cabinet.
A judge restores customs controls for Northern Ireland
A judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland suspended this Friday the order issued by the head of Northern Ireland Agriculture, Edwin Poots, which ended customs controls on products arriving from the island of Great Britain. The suspension will be in force while the court submits to an “exhaustive” analysis the decision of the minister of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to which the former chief minister, Paul Givan, who presented his resignation on Thursday, also belongs.