For Boris Johnson, the “Partygate” affair is not over yet. Despite his apology to Parliament, the opposition wants to press ahead with new investigations. But there is much to suggest that the British prime minister will again get away with a black eye.
At the beginning of the year things looked bleak for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. After the first reports of lockdown parties in Downing Street, hardly a day went by without new headlines about “wine, cheese and birthday cake”. A vote of no confidence seemed almost inevitable – it is now considered unlikely.
In his first parliamentary address since the police fined him about a week ago, the prime minister expressed remorse. “That was my mistake and I apologize unreservedly,” Johnson said to loud boos from the opposition. The British public can rightly “expect something better from their Prime Minister”.
When asked directly whether he had deliberately misled Parliament, the Prime Minister emphatically denied. MPs are scheduled to vote Thursday on whether Johnson deliberately misled the House of Commons when he denied ever breaking the rules in December. Knowingly misleading Parliament violates the government’s code of conduct and is thus the opposition’s last glimmer of hope as a clear reason for resigning.
Opposition finds clear words, but little support
And this was clearly articulated after Johnson’s speech. Opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer called the Prime Minister “a man without shame” who would not respect the sacrifices made by the British public during the coronavirus pandemic. Starmer urged Conservative MPs to use Thursday’s opportunity to ditch Johnson and “restore decency, honesty and integrity to our politics.”
But only one Tory MP, Mark Harper, publicly endorsed calls for his resignation. “I no longer think he is worthy of the great office he holds”, .
The fact that the prime minister apologized several times in his statement, but did not expressly admit that he had broken the law, caused anger. “It did not occur to me then or later that a meeting in the Cabinet Room just before an important meeting on Covid strategy could constitute a breach of the rules,” Johnson said. However, he stressed that the “pain and anger” provoked by the affair have given him “an even greater sense of obligation to uphold the priorities of the British people and, in the best traditions of our country, to respond to Putin’s barbaric attack on to respond to Ukraine”. At the same time, the prime minister confirmed that he also wanted to stay in office because of the war in Ukraine.
Opposition leader Keir Starmer dismissed the apology as “watery”. “He [Johnson] knows he’s dishonest and unable to change, so he’s dragging everyone else down with him,” Starmer said. He also dismissed his services as a mediator in the Ukraine war. Support for Ukraine in parliament is bipartisan, and everyone Successor to the Conservatives could continue the British line in this area, argued the Labor leader.
Boris Johnson as mediator in the Ukraine war
In fact, it seems as if the opposition has lost momentum as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The international crisis had pushed the “Partygate” affair out of the headlines and given Boris Johnson a life-saving distraction from domestic politics. Now the prime minister is traveling from a war-related state visit to the next NATO meeting and is playing the statesmanlike mediator.
He is said to be on the phone almost every day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who expressly referred to him as “” in a speech to the British Parliament. After his short visit to Ukraine, the British media praised Johnson as “the first and only head of state of the G7 countries” to secretly visit embattled Kyiv.
While the outcry in his own ranks was still great at the beginning of the year, Johnson’s appearance as an active mediator has managed to rally many of his party comrades around him again. In the current war, a prime minister cannot be changed, so the argument goes – especially since the alternatives are numbered. Just a few weeks ago, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak was being discussed as a possible successor. But the alternative has been dealt with, because Sunak himself made false statements about the lockdown parties in front of Parliament and was also fined.
In the meantime, even conservative MPs who had previously loudly called for Johnson’s resignation are rowing back. Baker even advocated forgiving Johnson and stressed the need for “justice, mercy and humility” – although he asked the PM to promise that nothing like it would happen again.
“Partygate” affair is not over yet
Other Tory MPs, on the other hand, are more reluctant, stressing that Johnson’s apology has not changed their critical view of his behavior. Many initially want to wait for the results of the ongoing Scotland Yard investigations, because the prime minister may face further fines.
The police investigations have also left their mark on the British public. In one, around two thirds of those questioned spoke negatively about the prime minister, with “liar” being the most frequently chosen negative association. The bottom line is that people’s anger at “Partygate” hasn’t subsided, commented conservative pollster James Johnson, who was behind the poll. Many of the negative comments also came from “people who used to like Johnson but have now changed their minds.”
While he doesn’t have too much to worry about ahead of Thursday’s vote, Boris Johnson is still a long way from sighing.
Sources: “”, “”, “”, with AFP material
Source: Stern
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