If ever there was a moment when the UK needed competent and trustworthy leadership, it is now. Inflation is on course to reach 11 per cent; millions worry about their ability to make ends meet. Labour unrest is spreading. Sterling is sliding. A war is raging in Europe. Yet, mired in scandals around its leader, Boris Johnson’s government has for months been able to deliver only drift and disarray. After his health secretary and chancellor resigned, others followed in droves and several cabinet ministers told him he must go. The Johnson era is ending. It would have been better for the country if it had ended months ago.
Those beyond UK shores may puzzle over what might appear a paltry charge sheet against the prime minister. But a series of incidents have demonstrated a wanton disregard for rules and for the truth. This is a prime minister now revealed to have appointed a loyalist colleague to a sensitive party discipline role, despite being aware that an allegation of sexual misconduct had been upheld against his appointee. Ministers were dispatched to tell what turned out to be falsehoods on Johnson’s behalf.
This is a prime minister who permitted a culture of illegal partying in Downing Street when his country was locked down during a global pandemic — and was himself fined by police for attending one gathering. Yet he repeatedly assured parliament no regulations had been broken.