Partygate: the threat to the PM
Boris Johnson is now “in a strange limbo – leading a party that will neither back him nor sack him”, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. This became clear last week, when Keir Starmer called for a vote on whether the PM should face a Commons inquiry into claims that he misled MPs over lockdown parties at Downing Street. Dozens of Tory MPs “point blank refused” to vote against the Starmer motion – and it passed unopposed. Out of 358 Tory MPs, only about 80 have publicly backed Johnson, while nine have called for him to quit – including the influential pro-Brexit MP Steve Baker. This suggests that over three-quarters of the party are still “reserving their judgement”. Most are “appalled at Partygate and exhausted by his antics, but struggle to see who would do better”. Scotland Yard has now given the PM a bit of breathing space, said Ben Quinn in The Guardian. Although he could face at least three further fines for lockdown breaches, it has suspended updates on new fixed-penalty notices until after the 5 May local elections.
What on earth are these “treacherous” Tory MPs playing at, asked Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail. Johnson has apologised for Partygate, many times. Even so, behind the scenes, 46 Tory MPs have sent letters of no confidence in his leadership, post-dated until after the May local elections, to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers. It makes no sense. Even if they reach the 54 needed for a leadership vote, a majority of Tory MPs won’t want to unseat the PM: the rebels will have only paralysed the Government during an “international crisis.” Besides, there’s no evidence that the PM lied to MPs, said Daniel Hannan in The Sunday Telegraph. During lockdown no one thought that it was wrong for key workers to socialise at work: the press was full of reports of nurses doing TikTok routines and celebrating birthdays. Many things might merit a putsch, “but being in the vicinity of cake? Come off it.”
It’s not just about a single incident, said Sean O’Grady on The Independent. Possibly Johnson will get away without more fines, but Tory MPs are finally realising that their scandal-prone leader is an “electoral liability”. The PM is certainly inconsistent, said William Hague in The Times. In the Commons last week, he was full of contrition about the parties, but at a subsequent meeting of backbenchers, Steve Baker said that the PM had been so full of jokes and bombast, he’d decided there and then that Johnson had to go. Boris loves to cheer people up, but in leaders, consistency and sincerity matter. If he is to survive, he needs to be like a stick of rock: showing the same values all the way through.