We have to talk about Boris Johnson: The 'tories' are divided over the scandal of forbidden parties

Popular historian Peter Hennessy once forged the theory of "government by good people." He came to say that in a system like the British one, which lacks a written Constitution and is governed by centuries-old uses and customs, it is important that the rulers respect the spirit of the law and have internalized the idea that certain limits are insurmountable. Therefore, it is surprising that the appearance on the political scene of a character like Boris Johnson has led Hennessy to rethink his convictions, and to think that certain things, such as the fact that a prime minister who lies to Parliament has to resign immediately , must be clearly established in writing, so that there are no misunderstandings. “He hasn't the faintest idea of ​​what proper behavior entails, or proper procedure.It does not know the limitations necessary for the system to work. If something bothers him, he just tries to get rid of it, ”describes the historian to Johnson in the magazine

.

The British prime minister has embarked on an intense round of personal telephone conversations with most Conservative MPs over the weekend, trying to convince them to allow him to remain in his post.

And he has brought back the team of allies who helped him launch his campaign for party leadership in 2019 to launch another operation.

This time, survival.

There are many deputies who these days have expressed their boredom with the politician who, paradoxically, gave them a spectacular electoral victory in December 2019. And in most of the criticisms there was the implicit recognition that Johnson was useful in overcoming the eternal labyrinth of Brexit, which had divided British society for years, but no one had thought of him as a capable manager to take the reins of the country.

"We never made Johnson prime minister because of his meticulous understanding of a lot of tedious laws, but what happened has been scandalous, and citizens are right to be furious," Steve Baker admitted this week on the BBC.

This aeronautical engineer, consultant and former financier, with a deep disdain for the EU and a quasi-religious belief in neoliberalism, maneuvered behind the scenes, at the end of 2018, to collect the necessary votes that launched the internal vote of no confidence against the then Prime Minister Theresa May. The correspondent of the newspaper EL PAÍS has heard him admit that he was not enthusiastic about Johnson, but he could be useful to carry out the hard Brexit that the eurosceptics had been pursuing since his victory in the 2016 referendum.

The scandal of the prohibited parties in Downing Street during the confinement has turned Johnson into a broken toy, although he still has one last double advantage against the attempts to unseat him that have emerged in the Conservative Party.

The internal rules prohibit the repetition, at least until a year has passed, of a motion of censure against the leader.

If the rebel deputies manage to collect the number of so-called letters of confidence withdrawal, 54, which automatically activates the expulsion process, Johnson has already announced his willingness to fight for his survival tooth and nail.

Her predecessor, Theresa May, managed to withstand the onslaught of Eurosceptics, obtaining 200 votes in support against 117 against her.

The dimension of internal rejection was so eloquent, however,

The different tribes that today make up the conservative parliamentary group do not share the same degree of anxiety in the face of the current crisis.

Many of them fear that a new race for the leadership of the party would plunge the country into a period of paralysis, just as it tries to emerge from the pandemic, recover financially and face a harsh winter in which the cost of living will squeeze the budget. from many homes.

Some MPs have preferred to wait for the investigation into the Downing Street parties to conclude before making a final decision. Sue Gray, the permanent deputy secretary at the Cabinet Office, should have the conclusions of her report ready by the middle of next week. In recent days, new evidence against Johnson and his team has been accumulating that Gray has had to incorporate into the case. His delay in announcing the outcome of the investigation leads to the suspicion that, contrary to what Downing Street may have initially calculated, it may be a serious blow to Johnson. Gray does not have the capacity to point to criminal responsibilities, and he will give serious thought to launching a direct accusation against the prime minister he works for,but the political pressure on her is of such intensity that even the slightest indulgence cannot be allowed.

David Gauke, who was Justice Minister in the previous Conservative government, and one of Johnson's staunchest critics, has already asked his Conservative colleagues not to be fooled, and to set the highest possible bar for the time to hear Gray's factual conclusions and the Prime Minister's subsequent explanations in Parliament.

Cumming's Revenge

The ideologue of the campaign in favor of Brexit in the 2016 referendum and former star adviser to Johnson, Dominic Cummings, is behind many of the revelations about the parties that have put the prime minister in the pillory. His exit from Downing Street, humiliated and through the back door, after losing his personal battle against Johnson's wife, Carrie Symonds, fueled deep resentment in an introverted, eccentric man driven by his obsessions. The worst possible enemy.

He has been able to explain in an appearance before a parliamentary committee how he understood from the beginning that Johnson was not prepared for the position he held, and that he himself tried, from his position in Downing Street, to correct all his clumsiness. He uses his personal blog, published through the

to filter data and dates, and even guide the information and journalistic interpretations that emerge so that they do not deviate from the intended objective: to end the political career. of his enemy. For example, the photo of March 15, 2020 published by

in which Cummings shared a table, with wine and cheese, with Johnson, his wife Carrie and the Prime Minister's secretary, Martin Reynolds, in Downing Street Gardens, "it was obviously not a party, but a business meeting ”, the adviser has written. The invitation, five days later, sent to more than 100 people, to bring "their own alcohol (

)" to another meeting in that same garden, was, however - also according to Cummings - an illegal event of the who warned Johnson.

Quite a few Conservative MPs would like to play for time, and wait for the local elections in May, to see if finally, as the polls suggest, Johnson's electoral magic has completely faded. The problem with that strategy is that no one trusts that the damage can be contained anymore. When the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, Douglas Ross, decided to jump ship, as the party scandal began to spread, he had a telephone conversation with Johnson. He simply asked if he could assure him that there would be no more compromising news. The prime minister was unable to make that promise.

The crisis unleashed in Downing Street has left the country and the Government in limbo. One by one, the ministers who aspire to succeed Johnson have avoided getting wet for him. Rishi Sunak, the head of Economy; Liz Truss, the Foreigner; Sajid Javid, from Health. These are some of the names that are already circulating before a new race for the leadership of the Conservative Party. They have all had lukewarm words of support for their boss, they have limited themselves to asking for patience until the investigation of what happened is concluded, and they have even wanted to remember that tradition - the one that Johnson usually ignores - imposes that the member of the Government - prime minister including – who lies to Parliament is obliged to leave office.

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