Early poll could give PM shot in the arm

STANDING on the coffins of more than 100,000 dead, failure Boris Johnson is trying to use the Covid vaccines to present himself as a success.

Labour MPs are increasingly worried the cynical shape-shifter will evade accountability for the terrible double-whammy of so many needlessly lost lives and livelihoods.

Nervous talk has been heard in Opposition ranks about Johnson gambling on an early election to bank votes from grateful jab recipients.

Chief prosecutor Keir Starmer regularly reveals Johnson’s inadequacies at Prime Minister’s Questions, highlighting grievous mistakes in Downing Street’s lethal mishandling of the response.

But the narrative is undeniably changing. More people having been vaccinated than were infected is a notable milestone and a PR win.

Yes, Johnson’s hands remain stained by the blood of folk dying in their thousands and a weekend opinion poll put Labour four points ahead.

But the relief of so many inoculated people and a daily flood of official optimism could add up to another win for the Conservatives.

One incandescent prominent Labour supporter told me her elderly mother believes the PM has saved her life with the vaccine.

The injections seem to have erased criticism of all the dawdling, PPE shortages, care home scandals and the woeful Test and Trace shambles. Labour MPs aren’t the only ones speculating about a general election before December 2024.

A wise senior Tory with good foresight, who correctly predicted Theresa May would call the 2017 election, thinks it’ll be next year or late spring 2023 at the latest. So Johnson may well repeal the 2011 Fixed-Term Parliament Act, giving him the green light to drive to Buckingham Palace for an early contest without first seeking approval from the House of Commons. Starmer and his front bench must raise their game or Boris Johnson could engineer an undeserved five more years of Tory rule.

The dead don’t vote and many of the living have short memories.