Correspondent in London
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“In the name of God, go away.” With these words, which at the time the conservative deputy Leo Amery blurted out to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain before his resignation in 1940, the parliamentarian demanded this Wednesday David Davis a Boris Johnson to leave his post once and for all. “You have been sitting there too long for the few good things you have done… In the name of God, go away,” the former Brexit secretary told the ‘premier’, in what is undoubtedly his most difficult moment since he will win the election with an overwhelming majority in December 2019. For Johnson, being compared to Chamberalin is a complete insult, considering that his idol and role model is Winston Churchill.
Davis, in a particularly tough debate in the House of Commons, detailed that while he has often defended Johnson from “angry voters” in his constituency over a series of scandals that have emerged one after another, reports of the Drinking parties in Downing Street during lockdown have been too much. The same is believed by the hitherto ‘tory’ Christian Wakeford, who decided to join the Labor ranks, such is his disappointment with the leader of his party for the so-called ‘Partygate’, a decision that he described as “the hardest” of his life .
Precisely Wakeford, who said that Johnson’s behavior is “shameful”, is one of the deputies of the English ‘red wall’ who ended up giving him victory in the general elections and who is now part of the ‘pork pie plot’ (the ‘plot of the pork pie’), with at least a dozen of them willing to vote a no-confidence motion against him. In fact, they have already sent letters of non-confidence to the president of the so-called 1922 Committee of the Conservative Party, who can activate the motion if 15% of his deputies, in this case, 54, send said letters. There is a chance that this number will be reached, but that does not mean definitive defeat, since once that happens, the vote has to be called, which in principle would be expected for next week, and only if more than 50% of the Conservative MPs approve the motion, the race to replace Johnson as party leader would begin.
Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, one of the most critical against the prime minister and the first to confirm that he sent a letter to the 1922 Committee, was optimistic in considering that the motion of censure is “ever closer”.
During the session in Parliament, the Labor leader was also very harsh with the ‘premier’, Keir Starmer, who considered “absurd and frankly incredible” his explanations about the illegal parties in Downing Street, among which the fact that Johnson attended one of them, on May 20, 2020, according to him, believing that it was a ” work meeting”, which has provoked innumerable criticism and ridicule. “The Prime Minister’s decision to attend was incredibly stupid,” said MP Paul Beresford.
The newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ ensures that several of the leaders of the plot were summoned to Downing Street for a meeting with Johnson during which, according to sources, the ‘premier’ was “on the verge of tears” while asking his parliamentarians who did not withdraw their support.
Those who definitely seem to have abandoned him are the voters, as reflected in the polls, in which he has fallen more than ten points. Prominent political scientist and consulting expert John Curtice considers it unlikely that his image will recover, as a majority thinks he is a “liar” and a “coward”. Thus, his deputies “have to ask themselves if the prime minister is likely to recover, or not, from a situation in which about half of the people who voted for him think he should leave,” the specialist explained.
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