Tory MPs are frogs in boiling water amid
Johnson’s ‘partygate’ defence
Analysis: senior MPs continued to signal their
unhappiness with the PM in the Commons on Monday
Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell was the latest
senior Conservative party MP to tell Johnson to go, as his neighbour in the Commons
David Davis had done nearly a fortnight before.
Aubrey
Allegretti Political correspondent
@breeallegretti
Mon 31 Jan
2022 21.15 GMT
Boris
Johnson may have been cast by his supporters as a “big dog” – but many of his fellow
Tory MPs see themselves as frogs.
They use
the analogy of the amphibian which, placed in a pot of boiling water, would
immediately leap out – but finds itself withstanding incredibly high
temperatures if the heat is turned up more slowly. In this case, the gradually
rising temperature is the drip-drip of sleaze, cost of living crises and
Downing Street parties.
So on
Monday it was with a heavy heart that some MPs admitted they had finally
reached boiling point with “partygate”, unable to contain their rage at a dozen
lockdown gatherings being investigated by the Metropolitan police and a
redacted official report.
A string of
former cabinet ministers – and Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister – lined
up in the Commons to publicly unleash their views on a Downing Street operation
criticised by Sue Gray’s report for its “serious failure” to observe strict
lockdown laws.
The mood
was combative. One MP described it as like a “boxing match”, another said
“tribalism” had set in and Johnson was starting to be better propped up by his
backbenchers.
But however
many impassioned speeches were made in defence of his Brexit credentials, the
Covid vaccine rollout or commitment to “levelling up”, Johnson was wounded
multiple times by interventions by some heavy hitters in the party.
Theresa
May, who tends to deliver sparse but withering attacks on Johnson, said people
“had a right to expect their prime minister to have read the rules, to
understand the meaning of the rules” and “set an example”.
She
believed Gray’s report was clear No 10 “was not observing the regulations they
had imposed on members of the public” and accused Johnson of either not
understanding the rules or believing they did not apply to his team. “Which was
it?” she asked.
Other
grandees who took aim at Johnson included two former chief whips. The first, an
emotional Andrew Mitchell, said he had given Johnson his “full-throated
support” for 30 years but confessed to being “deeply concerned” by the prime
minister’s previous denials of any wrongdoing at the dispatch box.
Recalling a
private conversation he had with Johnson 10 days earlier, Mitchell said he had
told the prime minister “he should think very carefully about what was now in
the best interests of our country and of the Conservative party” and added: “I
have to tell him he no longer enjoys my support.”
Mark
Harper, another Tory MP who was once in charge of party discipline, said many
people had questioned Johnson’s “honesty, integrity and fitness to hold that
office”.
His
insistence that Johnson publish the full Gray report once the Met’s criminal
inquiry has concluded was shared widely by other backbenchers, and led the
government to U-turn in a matter of hours.
Although
the nearly 90-minute debate was often raucous and punctuated by cheers and
brays, silence was observed for a speech made by Aaron Bell. He talked of
attending his grandmother’s funeral in May 2020 – when two gatherings
investigated by Gray happened in No 10, one of which is being probed by police.
Bell
recalled the “wonderful woman” whose funeral in Kent, with only 10 people, was
a three-hour drive from Staffordshire. All other mourners had to watch online.
“I didn’t hug my siblings, I didn’t hug my parents, I gave the eulogy and then
afterwards I didn’t even go to her house for a cup of tea,” Bell said. “Does
the prime minister think I’m a fool?”
Although
Johnson managed to avoid the resignations that helped bring down May’s
administration, he did suffer one MP quitting as a ministerial aide. Angela
Richardson, a parliamentary private secretary to Michael Gove, wrote in a
social media post that she felt “deep disappointment” it had “taken so long” to
get an acknowledgment of wrongdoing and an apology.
Despite the
challenging attacks from colleagues, it was still unclear if enough MPs would
write no-confidence letters to trigger a ballot on Johnson’s future. Behind the
scenes, Tory backbenchers said they thought Johnson had been in a weaker
position the day before Christian Wakeford’s defection to Labour.
One senior
Conservative called Johnson a “bastard” who would “probably wiggle off the
hook”. A backbencher, part of the so-called “pork pie plotters”, appeared in
retreat, conceding the struggle to oust the prime minister was now a
“long-game” and adding there “won’t be a queue” outside the office of Sir
Graham Brady, the holder of no-confidence letters.
Another MP
said Gray’s pared-back report “looks like a smoking gun, but we’ll be waiting a
while for the coroner”.
While
Johnson tried to shore up support on Monday night, he chose to address all MPs
rather than only backbenchers as usual. A Tory source drily noted: “I’d want
the moral support of the payroll if I was Boris having to face down the
backbenchers right now.”
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