The end of Boris Johnson
The party situation that is determining the end of the premiership of 57-year-old Tory leader Boris Johnson is very complex. Daniele Meloni's analysis
Theresa May was filmed by cameras while she was at the Royal Opera House in London to attend the Cavalleria Rusticana, an opera that has intrigues and betrayals at its center. Many suspect that the former prime minister, one of Boris Johnson's bitterest enemies, has plotted to unseat the current Prime Minister. May and his former ministers and collaborators, the Conservatives of the One Nation group, some even say the former anti-Brexit Remainers: but the party framework that is determining the end of the 57-year-old Tory leader's premiership is much more complex. At the moment, 27 ministers, undersecretaries and junior ministers have fled the ship after Johnson messed about the case of Chris Pincher, the deputy group leader who resigned for molesting people after a high-alcohol evening at London's conservative Carlton Club. .
Sajid Javid , the health minister, was the first to come out of the ranks yesterday. Today in the municipalities in his resignation speech as secretary of State, he reiterated the question relating to the integrity of the premier and the authority of the government, stating that "too much is too much" and that "he is no longer able to repeat the lies suggested to him. by Johnson's staff ". A speech that seemed like the first step towards his candidacy as Tory leader. So far, in fact, only Jeremy Hunt has made it clear that he wants the job but once Johnson steps aside – a matter of days, maybe hours – the race will start with Defense Minister Wallace and the Foreign Minister among the favorites. Office, Liz Truss, but which could also include some characters as outsiders: this is the case of Tom Tugendhat, Lord Frost and Penny Mordaunt.
Johnson reiterated to the municipalities – where he was joined by his deputy Raab and the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Zahavi (who took the place of the resigning Sunak) – that he does not intend to step aside. At this point we need a modification of the party's internal regulations. In fact, after having passed the no-confidence motion of last June 6 with 59% of the votes, it now seems that the premier enjoys much less than half the support of Tory parliamentarians. Except that the 1922 Committee – the party's powerful backbencher group – stipulates that a leader who survives a vote of no confidence cannot be challenged for a year. End of discussions? But not even for a dream. In fact, the regulation can be changed. Also because the letters of no confidence against Johnson are pouring in to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Committee. Many speculate a new vote on Johnson even before the recess of July 20, the summer break for the parliamentary holidays.
Difficult to make assumptions now. What is certain is that the partygate , the Pincher case, and the moral question serve very much as a red herring to cover the deep divisions over economic policy, managing restrictions during the pandemic, implementing Brexit, and, finally, last but not least, fears of losing Conservative MPs seats, especially those on the Blue Wall in south London. One thing is certain: the new leader will have a hard time keeping together a torn party like never before.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-fine-di-boris-johnson/ on Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:34:44 +0000.