PM’s flat decoration paints grim picture
GREEDY self-interest obsessing Boris Johnson during a deadly pandemic, and the unavoidable stench of coronyvirus corruption, may yet prove this arrogant Prime Minister’s undoing.
Johnson’s 6-7% vaccine bounce in the polls on the eve of the anniversary of last March’s draconian lockdown speech will be vulnerable if it is found he has been featherbedding as well as being grotesquely incompetent.
The Electoral Commission watchdog demanding the Conservative party explain how Johnson found £60,000 that went towards a £200,000 redecoration of his Downing Street flat is no mere technicality.
How the work was funded is a matter of grave public interest, with disclosure crucial in case the Prime Minister has ended up in hock to wealthy benefactors.
What this whiffy episode also tells us is that during the fight against a lethal foe, when the country needed a leader devoted 100% to dealing with an epochal threat, Johnson’s attention turned to who would pay for new wallpaper in his apartment.
At the start of the outbreak the dithering PM was holed up in a graceand-favour country house, finalising his divorce and plans to remarry.
Later in the pandemic when he again dawdled disastrously, saving lives and livelihoods jostled on his to-do list with domestic colour schemes. Extracting the truth from a serial liar isn’t easy and Johnson fibs on everything from Labour and nurses’ pay to transport cuts in the North and a disastrous Brexit.
Those Conservative MPs and MSPs demanding Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation if the SNP First Minister is found this week to have misled the Scottish Parliament should be consistent if Johnson is found to be in the wrong.
They should also demand his resignation as Prime Minister or they will be guilty of obvious hypocrisy.
Discovering the facts of Johnson’s make-over are essential. That’s why he’ll block, prevaricate and probably lie to keep them shrouded.
The truth hurts a PM presiding over a terrible death rate and economic damage. Blaming his girlfriend Carrie Symonds for distractions isn’t fair. The buck stops with Johnson.