About an hour before Boris Johnson was due to fly back to the UK from Delhi on Friday night – after a two-day trade mission to India – exciting news surfaced on Twitter. Anushka Asthana, ITV’s Deputy Political Editor, tweeted that “fines fall into people’s inboxes related to the event in the garden on May 20, 2020 – BYOB [bring your own bottle] an event that Boris Johnson went to. “
The trip to India was already overshadowed by Partygate. The Tories have endured a horrible week in parliament, and Johnson is facing a third investigation into the 10th party.
Johnson was at a business reception – his last event of the trip – and his aides were caught unaware of the news. Journalists asked if the prime minister had also been fined and hoped to ask the question directly to Johnson himself during the long flight back to London. But during the trip they were told that he would not get off the plane to chat, as is usual on such trips, because he was asleep.
Johnson had already been fined once, during the Easter holidays, for attending his own birthday in June 2020 in violation of blocking rules, and had issued a sad apology to parliament on Tuesday before flying to Delhi.
But the story, which refuses to disappear, has begun to unfold again. Can he survive a second fine? Would he make a second excuse? How many more fines and excuses can there be?
Back in London, number 10 said he had not been fined again, as far as anyone knew, but there was no outright denial that anyone could come or could now be in office.
After these last disastrous few days of Johnson’s presidency, two things are much clearer than last weekend. First of all, no matter how much Johnson wants to draw a line under Partygate, everyone in Westminster already knows that he will definitely not be able to do it soon. And second, more and more Tory MPs are losing faith in their leader, feeling they can no longer defend his behavior in front of their constituents.
As one party grandee commented on Wednesday, two weeks before the local elections: “Colleagues are just bored with all this. They are depressed that they wake up every morning to face their inboxes full of all this hatred of parties. They feel they can no longer defend him in front of people and they don’t want to be associated with him. “
A former cabinet minister added on Friday that Johnson could continue until the fall, but it was clear he was about to leave. It has turned from an electoral asset into an electoral liability. “There may be three or four more fines and three or four more apologies, then the Metropolitan Police report, then Sue Gray’s report, which is likely to be very critical, and now we have a parliamentary report that lasts for months.” said the minister. “Then, as Boris is Boris, he will fuck other things. There is no doubt where all this will end. “
On Tuesday, Johnson still seems to believe that remorse over the birthday fine can overcome him. Late that afternoon, he stood in the House of Commons, carrying the most apologetic and humble person he could muster, and said he apologized again and again. “I make it absolutely clear that I am in no way minimizing the significance of this fine,” was his response to veteran Sir Bill Cash’s intervention. “I sincerely regret my mistake and fully accept the decision of the police.
But the prime minister’s period of remorse was very short. Hours later, after former Tory chief whip Mark Harper announced he could no longer support him, Johnson turned to the Conservative Committee meeting in 1922 and appears to have fully recovered.
Attendees were amazed at how suddenly the prime minister’s mood improved. But not everyone was amused by his rediscovered good mood. “He just tried to make a series of jokes,” said a former minister who was there. It was as if he was giving a speech after dinner. There was no sign of humility for hours. I don’t think he had thought of what he meant and it didn’t go well. He had lost the room by the end. He said he was determined to get to work, but it seemed that breaking his rules no longer mattered.
The next day, according to the Prime Minister, there was an ominous lack of normal supporting noise behind Johnson. Something had changed. “It was so noticeable,” said a Labor MP. “You could see his power draining.”
Labor urged Johnson to be referred to the Municipal Commission to determine whether he had deliberately misled municipalities about parties that violated the blockade, which he had previously denied had taken place. As word of the Labor proposal spreads, Tory MPs are becoming increasingly concerned about the proposal that №10 will order them to block it. “There were a lot of Tories in the full state,” said a former Labor MP, “because they were afraid of what their constituents would say if they voted to oppose another investigation into the rule.” They kept saying “Owen Patterson, Owen Patterson” and that number 10 hadn’t learned its lesson.
Aware of the disaster, the Tory whips and №10 drew up a compromise plan that included amending Labor’s proposal to postpone its start date until after the Met report was published in the parties. But even that was too much for many Tories who had lost the patience to be told how to react and vote for Partygate. They knew what they were thinking. Tory MPs gathered around the municipalities, saying they would not play ball. It was a quiet revolt, but one that speaks volumes about the prime minister’s sudden loss of control over his troops in parliament.
A former minister said his constituency chairman had contacted him to say the matter should be considered by the Municipal Privileges Committee, as Labor insisted on giving full details of Johnson’s advice on parties. and photos to be clarified and the full truth to be known. Several junior ministers have threatened to resign. Another former minister said: “I told the whips ‘no way’ – I will not be there to vote on Thursday no matter what happens.”
There were frantic telephone conversations between London and Ahmedabad, where a tired and overheated Johnson was unable to escape internal affairs and feared a mass uprising in his own parliamentary ranks. Then on Thursday morning, ministers raised the white flag and withdrew the amendment, giving Tory MPs a free vote on Labor’s proposal. Later that day, without any Tories opposing it, lawmakers approved Labor’s proposal for further investigation.
Extraordinarily, he concluded by describing Johnson’s previous statements to parliament, in which he denied knowing about holding parties, as comments that “seem to be misleading to the House.” And no Tories objected until Steve Baker, one of the few who actually made it into the hall, told the House: “The prime minister has long since left. The prime minister just needs to know that the concert is ready. Two days earlier, he had publicly backed Johnson.
The work was insane. Officials said they had managed to prevent the government, before the local elections, from changing the agenda and trapping them on issues such as Priti Patel’s policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Keir Starmer has taken high positions in his speech, focusing on trust in politicians and the future of democracy to ward off accusations that he is politicizing Partygate. However, after the vote, he went down to the Strangers bar and bought a drink for everyone, knowing that Johnson would not run away from the problem for many more months if he remained in office.
That evening on BBC news at 22:00 the leading material came from India and showed Johnson facing questions about the vote and new inquiries from Partygate. The second material presents Chancellor Rishi Sunak in Washington, who talks about the fine he also received for violating the blocking rules. So much for getting started.
MEPs are now assessing the effects of all this on voters ahead of the May 5th local elections. Many Conservative MPs are waiting for the results before deciding whether to write letters of no confidence in Johnson to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee.
Another Tory major following Saturday’s election campaign said he was impressed by the Conservatives’ vote in many areas. But he noted that there is a “significant minority” of Tory voters who are now saying, “No, as long as Boris is prime minister.” That number, he suggested, could be large enough to send conservative advisers to defeat in some key areas, and possibly have the effect of lifting the curtain on Johnson’s presidency.
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