Downing Street’s May 2020 bring-your-own-booze party has reignited the despair about Boris Johnson’s leadership that the remaining Conservative optimists hoped might disappear over the winter break. Now, though, the blaze has revived with a vengeance. Johnson’s apology to the Commons does not solve this in any way.
The apology merely confirms what was already clear: an astonishingly insensitive breach was committed at the height of the first lockdown. This dereliction did not just feature Johnson as a participant: it was marked by his very character. His apology, with its continued pretence about a work event within the regulations, lacks either moral worth or political credibility.
Conservative MPs are well aware their leader is a dodgy chancer. Some of them actively admire this. Others are happy to profit from it. Many loathe it while quietly despising themselves for permitting it. But the style works only while it succeeds. Most Tories had put Johnson on probation after his spectacularly disastrous December. The fresh explosion this week means they are now looking more urgently than before at the alternatives. » | Martin Kettle | Wednesday, January 12, 2022
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