Unite or be conquered

ONE building block of our democracy is that nobody is above the law. If evidence emerges that a person has committed a crime, they should be investigated.

even so, everything about the decision to inform police and MPs probing Partygate that Boris Johnson might have broken more lockdown rules at No10 and Chequers screams malevolence.

The ex-PM denies wrong-doing. And the fact is, there can’t be another politician whose actions during the pandemic have been picked over more forensically.

Scotland yard, Sue Gray, Parliament’s privileges committee… all have carried out meticulous inquiries into his conduct.

Is it really conceivable that not one of them inspected the ministerial diaries that recorded these supposedly illegal visits?

So why have fresh allegations surfaced now? It’s clear that, terrified of him making a comeback, his foes want to destroy him politically. Little wonder one supporter fumed: ‘This is the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry.’

It’s no secret civil servants have been trying to topple Tories whose politics they despise. But it’s deeply dispiriting that ministers and backbenchers are also stirring up trouble for Boris and home Secretary Suella Braverman, whose migration policies they loathe.

The Tories are hanging on to power by their fingertips – and if there is one thing voters hate, it’s a divided party that can’t stop fighting with each other.

Unless they soon rediscover a sense of unity, the Conservatives will be swept away on a wave of contempt at the next election.