Partygate poopers cursing Boris
RDOORSTEP polls show that though many are still angry with the Prime Minister over Partygate, the levels of emotional reaction have dropped from initial knee-jerk blind fury to something approximating to resigned annoyance. It’s not that Boris Johnson has been forgiven for repeatedly breaking the rules he set for the rest of us; it’s simply that most people reckon they have bigger fish to fry. Like finding the money to pay for their next energy bill. Or food for the table.
Out here in the real world, Partygate is simply not the scandal it once was. Conservative party activists campaigning for the local elections next month have been relieved to discover that people on the doorstep want to talk about other things.
And there are genuine positives for Boris too. He continues to win approval for his leadership in sending military and practical assistance to Ukraine, and the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda while their cases are examined.
But inWestminster – and specifically, on the Tory backbenches – Partygate looms larger than ever. Reportedly, 46 Tory MPs have sent letters calling for a vote of no confidence in their leader to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee.
Forty-six! That’s serious. It only takes 54 such letters to kick-start the process.Who exactly are these backbenchers? Many
have, pusillanimously in my view, post-dated their missives to just after the local elections on May 5. There’s conviction for you, eh? Challenge the leader, but only if he performs poorly at the polls.
But governments almost always see their party do badly at local elections (protest vote syndrome) so a bad result for Boris next week wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with bring-your-own-booze knees-ups at No. 10.
I find all of this extremely odd. If the wider public is increasingly prepared to let Partygate go (and there’s still a good two years to the next general election unless the PM decides to call a snap one in 2023, as is rumoured) what on earth is in it for Tory backbenchers to hold the boss’s feet to the fire?
Conservative leadership campaigns take MONTHS. Practically everyone, right down to
the constituency cat, has to be consulted.And even if enoughTory MPs voted against Boris, who would succeed him? Ask that question at Westminster and all you’ll hear is the dry whistle of the wind.There’s no one, is there? “Dishy Rishi” – the only contender a couple of months ago – is political toast thanks to the nom-dom row over his wife.
So I repeat – what do these mutinous backbenchers think they’re playing at? I’m mystified, so I can only think this is history repeating itself: Conservative history, that is; a cyclical tendency to commit ritual hara-kiri.
They did it with Margaret Thatcher.They did it with John Major. Now a little band of malcontents is toying with the idea of doing it to Boris Johnson.
Why? Because it’s in Conservative DNA; the party’s curse.Will anyone ever lift it?