Many Conservative Party officials worried about next week’s elections in North Shropshire boarding school. Now the premier will have to answer in Parliament
LONDON. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in very serious trouble. The government has asked citizens to resume working from home, put on their masks and avoid crowds, but newspapers and websites are full of images of the Christmas party held in Downing Street last December 18, when parties were banned. In Great Britain it is not tolerated that there are different rules for citizens and politicians, and this umpteenth display of arrogance will not be forgiven.
Many Conservative party officials are worried about next week’s election in North Shropshire boarding school, always a safe Tory fiefdom, which this time could go to Labor, because people are really outraged. Doctors and psychologists, on the other hand, are worried about the variant of the Covid Omicron, which risks infecting a million people during the Christmas holidays. The parties organized by the same government that has decided on restrictive measures for citizens undermine the credibility of the executive and the willingness of people to obey the rules. If there are parties at 10 Downing Street, why not also at 10 Abbeville Road or Barfett Street? Why not at my house?
The video delivered to broadcaster ITV in which Johnson’s former spokesperson Allegra Stratton is seen giggling as she confirms the party was held and that she certainly didn’t respect social distancing sparked a wave of indignation. Stratton has resigned, but the head of a collaborator will probably not be enough this time to save Johnson’s too. A year ago, the head of Dominc Cummings, the prime minister’s main advisor, was also found to violate the anti-Covid regulations just imposed by the government. But then it was an infringement committed by a single individual: this time, to ignore the rules, it was a gang of ministers, politicians and officials made up of at least 40 people who met at 6 pm in the main institutional headquarters of the country and they came out at 2 the next morning.
It is suspected that in those days there were other enjoyable meetings in defiance of the rules decided to contain the epidemic, but Boris Johnson continues to deny everything, arguing that no provisions have been violated. The premier, whose bad mood has been relieved by the birth of a child, the second child had by his wife Carrie Symonds, seems determined to fight. But all the newspapers, not to mention the web and social media, attack him mercilessly. Even the Daily Mail, which has always supported conservatives and called the hypothesis that Labor leader Keir Starmer going to Downing Street “a tragedy”, headlined: “A rule for them, new rules for the rest of us” . And the Sun: “Plan B for us .. Plan ‘lie, lie, lie’ for him”. Even the authoritative Telegraph, conservative, attacked the premier: “Do not go to work, but go to the parties as well”.
Johnson feels the ground collapsing under his feet: his popularity has plummeted and the elections in North Shropshire will be used by those who aspire in his place to further weaken him. The successor of Owen Paterson, the former Conservative minister forced to resign because he was paid by a private company to lobby Parliament, must be elected. Johnson defended him to the last, and the voters didn’t like that either.
What will happen now, with the pandemic picking up and the government less and less credible? “There is a real concern for Omicron. It could spiral out of control pretty quickly, ”said Stephen Reicher, a psychology professor at the University of St Andrews and a member of the government advisory group. In the midst of a crisis to which we must react quickly and we need a government to guide us. A government that we consider ‘theirs’, dishonest and liar, is not the government we need right now ”. Reicher recalled that vaccinations and booster programs are already hampered by people’s low confidence, which will increase further.
Johnson will now have to answer in Parliament, where the opposition will put him on the grill. In his party the rivals who weren’t at last year’s party are preparing to take his place, even if it will have to wait a while. If they voted now, polls say, Labor would surely win despite the inconsistency of their leader.
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