If the Tories are to win the next election, Boris has to go
I cannot accept that the PM did not know what was happening in No 10 during partygate. He has lost the public’s trust, and I don’t think he can get it back
Ihave been a member of the Conservative Party for over 50 years. From pushing leaflets through doors as a Young Conservative, to serving as a councillor, an MP, a minister and as one its vice-chairman, I have worked for it at pretty much every level. Being the broad church it thankfully is, I have done so under leaders of differing personalities and styles and political hues of Toryism. It has been, and is, a major part of my life, so what I am about to write does not come easily.
I have worked well with Boris Johnson. I campaigned enthusiastically for him to become mayor of London, where he did a brilliant job and, although we have sometimes differed on individual policies, I have always got on well with him. He has shown me and my family personal kindnesses for which I am grateful. Boris did the country a great service in 2019 by seeing off the threat of a hard-left Corbyn government and is entitled to real credit for our successful Covid vaccines rollout and the leadership he has shown in rallying the West against Russian aggression in Ukraine. I have no personal animosity towards him, but I have come to the conclusion that he should now stand down.
The sorry saga of partygate has been well rehearsed. Suffice to say that it demonstrated a pattern of wholly unacceptable behaviour by some working in No10, who broke the rules that the Government, and we as parliamentarians, were telling others to live by. I recognise the pressure they were working under, but that equally applied to millions of others across the country who were trying to keep businesses, public services and family life going. Those who set the rules had a particular responsibility to stick to them. Neither was this a case of isolated mistakes, which we can all make and could forgive if people owned up to them. This was a pattern of behaviour that was spread over some months.
I always said that I would wait until the conclusion of any police investigations and publication of the final report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray. My background as a lawyer made me want to have the fullest possible evidence before coming to a judgment. I read the report fully. I have listened carefully to the explanations the Prime Minister has given. I am sorry, but I do not find his assertions, either that no rules were broken or that he was unaware of the breaches, to be credible. I cannot accept that he was not aware of much of what was going on.
That is my personal assessment of the evidence, and my colleagues in Parliament will properly come to their own personal conclusions. The other matter that weighs heavily with me is the response of my own constituents.
Bromley is traditionally a suburban Conservative heartland. It voted overwhelmingly for Boris in the London mayoral elections of 2008 and 2012. Indeed, in 2012, the weight of votes from our borough alone exceeded his overall winning margin. But in the council elections in May, the message was very different. The Conservatives lost seats and votes across the borough. Areas which had been blue for as long as we can remember turned against us. Repeatedly, the message I got on the doorstep and in my emails was that our Conservative council was doing a good job, but they could not support us under Boris’s leadership.
The sad reality is that a significant part of the Conservatives’ traditional electorate, not to mention swing voters, have lost trust in the Prime Minister. For too many, the whole saga has undermined trust in the political process itself. Trust is the most precious commodity in politics, perhaps in life. Once lost it is very hard to regain. I do not believe Boris can get it back now.
Accordingly, I have sent a letter of no confidence in our party leader to the chairman of the 1922 committee. It is in the national interest that the Conservatives win the next election, but it requires a change of leader for us to do so.