The expected Parliamentary committee report on Boris Johnson’s conduct during the pandemic was devastating to the slim hopes of a political comeback for the former prime minister and now former Conservative MP. The committee ruled that Johnson deliberately misled parliament about so-called “Partygate” (the more than 100 parties and gatherings at 10 Downing Street during lockdown) and was “complicit” in attempting to “intimidate and abuse” MPs who were in charge of investigating the facts.
The parliamentary committee, which has a conservative majority, pointed out that, if they had not resigned from their seat last Friday, Johnson reportedly received a 90-day House of Commons suspension, a sanction that is unprecedented in Britain’s long parliamentary history. Plunging the dagger further into the former prime minister, he recommended that he not be granted the pass that former MPs normally receive to gain access to parliament. “That he has misinformed the chamber about the conduct of ministers and officials at the highest levels of government during a national emergency is unusually serious. To have described this committee as engaged in a witch hunt is tantamount to attacking the foundation and foundations of our democratic institutions,” the report said.
Johnson’s arguments
Following the parliamentary protocol of these investigations, the committee forwarded to Johnson on Tuesday of last week the bulk of the report. Johnson returned to the country immediately and on Friday night he shocked the public by resigning his seat and attacking the committee for its “obvious bias” which aimed to “reverse Brexit” and “betray the popular mandate”.
Johnson’s remarks did not go down well even with his allies who feel the shadow of his scandals will haunt conservatives for a long time. and it is ruining any chance of victory or dignified defeat in next year’s general elections. “The sooner he leaves, the better”, many murmured in different media “off the record”proof of the ascendancy that Johnson has not so much in parliament, but in the Conservative base, many of whom think that he was betrayed by the same Conservative MPs.
According to reports by the British press – conservative and center-left – parties were routinely held at 10 Downing Street almost every Friday to “chill out”. (relax) and regularly for all kinds of events: farewells, birthdays, celebrations. In that same period – March 2020 to December 2021 – the rest of the British population remained in different levels of confinement, most of the time without being able to see their family, relatives, friends and with strict regulations to go out in public. emergency cases – buying food or medicine – or for the so-called hygienic exits (walking in the streets, strolling through the wonderful British parks). According to the latest information, more than 227 thousand people died of Covid in the UK.
In a live dialogue this morning with the BBC, Liz, one of the victims’ relatives, said the verdict had restored her faith in parliament. “Only six people could go to my father’s funeral. My mother couldn’t even put a carnation in the coffin. She was not allowed to hug her. He was barbaric. The government has no excuse for its conduct.”
Goodbye Boris?
Johnson’s political career is that of a cat with seven lives: suspended from his own party, ousted from his post as chancellor and prime minister, with a dark past of verified lies during his previous incarnation as a journalist. Despite everything, he was twice elected mayor of London and in the 2019 elections he won an absolute parliamentary majority. At that time, the prediction of political futurologists was that he would govern the rest of the decade: from scandal to scandal he lasted just over two years.
In recent days, Johnson tried to revive the same script that helped him reach the pinnacle of political power. first as the architect of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and then with the final signing of the agreement with the European Union for the exit that finally took place on December 31, 2021. As reiterated this week by Johnson himself and his dwindling group of allies in the House of Commons is a conspiracy of parliament, the BBC, public officials, the opposition and other various actors who contribute numbers to measure the ongoing conspiracy.
Nothing is impossible in politics, but this time he seems to have gone too far: not even his easygoing, friendly, confused and dismissive Oxford style will give him a way out. In 2019, just before he became prime minister, his former editor at the “Daily Telegraph”, the conservative historian Max Hastings, was lapidary. “One can argue whether he is a total scoundrel or a brazen rogue, but what is beyond doubt is that his ethical and moral level is zero, a total bankruptcy based on his utter contempt for TRUE”
In the last elections the conservatives decided that a victory compensated that personal baggage. Since his resignation last Friday from his bench, almost no one came out to defend him among the same parliamentarians who voted for him and gave an ovation. Most of them know that the “Johnson affair” is sinking them. “The pantomime has to stop,” a conservative told “The Observer” on Sunday.
His fall from grace coincides with the tribulations before Donald Trump’s justice with whom he shares an extravagant style, zero adherence to the truth and a messy haircut hidden by the formality of the suit. Is it necessary to have an instinctive distrust of politicians with this aspect?