BRUSSELS (Aftenposten): Boris Johnson has been in bad weather before. But this time it’s serious. And probably the beginning of the end for the British Prime Minister.
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People who used to want to be seen with him are now trying to avoid him. They turn off the phone. Others in the party say that while he was previously their strongest card, he has now become a burden.
– Boris has become a super spreader of the new political contagion that plagues the Conservative Party, says a former close party colleague.
Unfortunately, there is nothing new about that description.
Now he has become a loser
What we now see follows a well-known pattern: The Conservative Party is notorious for stabbing its own leaders in the back. Theresa May, David Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher experienced it. Now the turn has come for Boris Johnson.
–Because if the party group experiences that Johnson no longer delivers on what they need and expect, they have no qualms about pushing him down the cliff.
For the EU opponents in the party, he delivered Brexit. Now they no longer need Johnson. They supported him when he was a winner. Now that he has become a loser, they turn their backs.
So cynical is the game.
Partygate
– No one should be in doubt that there will be a tidal wave with omikron in over Britain, warned a serious Boris Johnson in a speech to the nation on Sunday night. Now it also seems that the tidal wave has hit Boris Johnson with full force.
–The worst was the revelation of a Christmas closet in Downing Street on December 18 last year. A Christmas party Johnson denies took place. By then, Britain was shut down, socializing was banned, hospitals were kneeling and many died without those closest to them.
It also did not help that the revelation came on the same day as Boris Johnson held a press conference where he urged the British to cancel the Christmas celebration.
Other rules for Johnson and his friends
The British Prime Minister is hit extra hard when it comes to life and learning. His background as a private school-educated upper-class boy creates the impression that there are different rules for Johnson and his friends than for most Britons.
And the most serious: Again, Boris Johnson is about to be caught in a lie. The party joins the ranks of cases where Boris Johnson embellishes the truth, is approximate or turns away.
Now both this Christmas party and three other Christmas parties organized by the government are being investigated.
–And this is not the only scandal plaguing the British Prime Minister:
sleezegate: Earlier this fall, one of his close allies, Owen Paterson, had to resign after it became clear that he had received payment for lobbying for wealthy business partners. Instead of condemning the crime, Boris Johnson tried to change the rules to save his friend.
Renovation scandal: Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have had to endure harsh criticism for what many believe has been a lavish and unnecessary refurbishment of their private part of Downing Street. Now it turns out that Johnson was lying about who paid for the renovation.
The couple was last week fined NOK 200,000 for the illegal financing.
–No time for paperwork
Also on a personal level, it has stormed. It’s no secret that Boris Johnson has a demanding privacy. He has never wanted to reveal how many children he has. This autumn, an old infidelity story has flared up at the same time as his current wife has been heavily pregnant.
Last Wednesday, the day after the revelation about the Christmas party and the video was leaked, he became the father of a little girl, his second child of three years. According to British media, Johnson was present throughout the birth.
While everything boiled around him.
Fighting for his political life
On top of this, he is now fighting for his political life.
If it shows you that he has lied about the Christmas party in Parliament, the House of Commons will trap him.
Lying to Parliament is the most serious thing a prime minister can do. Then he’s done.
But it is most likely that the party will overthrow him. The knives are now sharpened:
The leader of the group, Graham Brady, holds the cards close to his chest. And no one gets to know how many letters have been received before the limit is reached.
–Long pine
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has to live with the uncertainty. Some people think he can be shot before Christmas. Most people think it can take months, maybe half a year. Meanwhile, new hills and potential defeats await.
On Tuesday, it is expected that close to 60 representatives will break out and refuse to support Johnson’s new covid restrictions.
On Thursday, a by-election will be held in the North Shropshire constituency. This has always been a rock solid Tory bastion. Now they steel themselves for a brackish defeat.
Who takes over?
Now no one in the party bothers to deny that there is a raw power struggle for Johnson’s successor. Several groupings a particularly active. The strongest favorites are Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister Lizz Truss. But also former Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove are frequently mentioned. The latter was stabbed in the back by Boris Johnson in the previous power struggle.
Saved by the Christmas bells
So far, Boris Johnson has bought time. It has been decided that the Christmas table scandal should be investigated. Thus, probably nothing happens until that conclusion is available.
If Johnson manages to stay seated until the Christmas peace subsides, nothing will probably happen until the new year. And the worst storm may have lied.
Again he can be “saved by the bell”. Or rather “the jingle Bells”.
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