Analysis: A strong climate deal in Glasgow may not save the Prime Minister from becoming bogged down in a sleaze row
If there was a moment that encapsulated Boris Johnson’s miserable last two weeks, it came during his fleeting press conference at COP26 in Glasgow on Wednesday.
Standing in the glare of the world’s media, the Prime Minister was barraged with questions over allegations of malfeasance at the heart of his party.
The line of inquiry forced him to insist to the world the UK was “not remotely corrupt” at a time when he was meant to be drumming home the dire climate crisis facing the planet.
In the week the leader of Tuvalu, a tiny island in the south Pacific, delivered his speech to COP26 via satellite while wading through the rising seawater caused by climate change, Mr Johnson gave his while knee-deep in a sleaze scandal that has engulfed his party and overshadowed the entire summit.
Allies of the Prime Minister have insisted the Paterson affair was a lapse in judgement caused by him being so involved in COP26.
“The whole of government, and particularly Boris Johnson, has been so heavily focused on COP that I think they took their eye off what was happening in Westminster. This has used up so much of their bandwidth,” one senior Conservative said.
By Friday, the weather in Glasgow had turned from bright skies to sullen grey and heavy rain as to act as a reminder of what was at stake.
The problem facing Downing Street now is what can be done to try to avoid the sleaze label sticking to the government.
There are fears inside the Tories that even if Mr Johnson were able to pin the world’s big polluters to a meaningful COP deal, it would do little to shift the stench hovering over the party.
One former Cabinet minister said a good climate deal could help put the government on an even keel, but warned it was unlikely to be enough in itself.
“Polling shows that it is the economy that matters more,” Chris Curtis, senior research manager at pollster Opinium, said. “If you look at what Gordon Brown did after the financial crisis, it helped his image recover among the public – but it wasn’t enough when it came to the election. People just no longer felt Labour could be trusted with the economy.”