By consensus, without the need to formally vote, the House of Commons approved on Thursday a motion presented by the opposition Labor Party for the so-called “privileges committee” to investigate whether Johnson misled Parliament when, in December, he denied that the rules against the coronavirus imposed by himself had been broken in his offices.
However, this will not begin until the police complete their investigations and senior official Sue Gray presents the full report of her own internal investigation, for which there is no date.
The opposition claims that Boris Johnson knowingly lied and that the fine imposed on him by the police last week – making him the first sitting head of government in the United Kingdom sanctioned for breaking the law – proves it.
The government bench was unusually empty, predicting a high abstention rate from the Conservatives, which ended up giving victory to the opposition and questioned Johnson’s support among the 359 deputies in his own ranks.
After trying on Wednesday night to delay the vote through an amendment, 15 minutes before the start of the debate the executive decided not to present it, which many observers attributed to the possibility of a conservative rebellion.
And even more: the government party gave its deputies freedom to vote on the opposition motion.
“I will certainly vote in favour,” rebel Steve Baker announced, calling on Boris Johnson to resign: “The Prime Minister should be gone by now.”
But rather than vote in favour, many of his fellow Conservatives chose to abstain so as not to put their names under what may appear as an attempt to cover up the controversial Prime Minister’s conduct under the “party gate”.
London police have spent weeks investigating a dozen events staged during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, from Christmas celebrations to farewell parties.
He has so far imposed some 50 fines, including Johnson’s for a party on the occasion of his 56th birthday, held on June 19, 2020 with dozens of people in the cabinet room.
But the investigation is still open. the prime minister, whose presence has been noted in the press at at least six of those events, could be fined again.
The scandal, which broke out in December, took on major proportions at the beginning of the year and a large group of conservatives then threatened to launch a motion of censure against their own leader.
But since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine and Boris Johnson’s active involvement in the Western response, his party has closed ranks around a leader few see fit to change now.
However, polls show that the prime minister’s popularity continues to decline in public opinion. And the opposition hopes that this will be reflected in the municipal elections on May 5.
Source: Ambito
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