The political earthquake unleashed in United Kingdom give her Boris Johnson resigns from the House of the Commons highlights the deep rift in the Tories but also, one year before the general elections, offers a glimpse of the political revenge of the former prime minister. Like former US President Donald Trump, BoJo has accused those who attack him, in this case the commission of inquiry into the so-called ‘partygate’, of conducting a witch hunt full of prejudices.
Then, on his resignation as deputy, he followed up with those of two ‘faithful’: Before, Nadine Dorries, a former culture secretary, who left her seat in Mid Bedfordshire, a Conservative stronghold; Then Nigel Adamsa Commons seat since 2010, elected in the Selby and Ainstry constituency, also a Tory stronghold, in which the Conservatives won by a margin of around 20,000 votes in the 2019 election.
And the by-elections they will also be in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, for the seat vacated by Johnson, a constituency which at the time had gone over to the Tory side by a narrower margin, just 7,000 votes. In short, for the British premier Rishi Sunakprepares a complicated electoral testat a time when Labor is also given a large lead in next year’s general election.
Not only that: the three resignations within twenty-four hours are beginning to resemble a coordinated campaign to trigger a series of by-elections; and it is no coincidence that a source close to Johnson said that another 5 or 6 ‘loyalists’ could resign.
Also because in the meantime, immediately after he resigned, writes the Fatto Quotidiano, the electoral commission received the request to form a new political formation, a “National Conservatism party” which, already from the name, alludes to a re-foundation of conservative values in a nationalist sense
In short, for Sunak, who has not yet said a word about Johnson’s resignation, bad times are in store. Triggering the new crisis in the Conservative Party was the inquiry into whether BoJo had lied to Parliament about parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the Privileges Committee made public its findings on the matter, sensing that the committee was preparing to recommend his suspension as a congressman, Johnson announced his resignation Friday night effective immediately.
And announcing the step back, he launched broadsides and slashing attacks both against the premier and against the Committee; then he called for cuts in corporate and personal taxes and urged the party to make better use of Brexit.
“I’m not alone in thinking there is a witch hunt to take revenge on Brexit and ultimately overturn the 2016 referendum result,” he thundered. “My replacement was the necessary first step and I think there has been a concerted effort to be able to achieve this.”
“We must not be afraid of being a conservative government,” he added, accusing Sunak of betraying his legacy. “We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit. Why have we passively abandoned the prospect of a trade deal with the US? We need to make the most of Brexit and we need to do so in the coming months with a pro-growth and pro- -investments”.
And he recalled how the Conservative Party, at the time of his resignation as leader, lagged in the polls “by only a handful of points” and how “that gap has widened massively” since Sunak’s arrival at Downing Street. last October.
“A few years after having obtained the largest majority in almost half a century, we clearly risk losing it,” warned Johnson, who thus unveiled his recipe for the next election. “Our party urgently needs to regain momentum and conviction in what this country can do.” In short, the revenge has begun.
The Labor Party’s national campaign coordinator, Shabana Mahmood, said Sunak “has lost control of his party”. “He’s simply too weak to unite a divided ‘Tory’, who are more interested in tearing each other apart, making life difficult for their premier with a by-election, than focusing on the issues that really matter to voters.”
Among other things, Sunak is obliged to call general elections before January 2025 and analysts expect the vote for the second half of 2024, with polls showing Labor with a clear advantage. As for BoJo, he had told the commission that if they found anything against him, he would not abide by the conclusions. And so he did, regardless of what it meant for the Tories.
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