Lord Barwell: 'The truth has been dragged out of Number 10' / Tories face heavy local election losses over Partygate, PM told / Boris Johnson should go sooner rather than later, say top Tory MPs

Tories face heavy local election losses over Partygate, PM told

 

Prominent backbencher Steve Baker says party will ‘reap the whirlwind on polling day’

 

Jim Waterson

@jimwaterson

Sat 23 Apr 2022 12.33 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/23/tories-face-heavy-local-election-losses-over-partygate-pm-told

 

Boris Johnson has been told public fury at lockdown-breaking Downing Street parties will result in the Conservatives suffering substantial losses at next month’s local elections, with the possibility that the prime minister may receive further police fines ahead of polling day.

 

Steve Baker, a prominent backbench Tory MP, said voters were repeatedly mentioning the Partygate scandal on the campaign trail and the Conservatives should prepare to “reap the whirlwind” of standing by Johnson.

 

The former Brexit minister, who called for Johnson to quit earlier this week, told the Daily Telegraph it was clear the prime minister was not sincere when he apologised to parliament for breaking lockdown rules, adding: “The problem is the contrition didn’t last much longer than it took to get out of the headmaster’s study. By the time we got to the 1922 Committee meeting that evening it was the usual festival of bombast and orgy of adulation. It took me about 90 seconds to realise he wasn’t really remorseful.”

 

He said members of the cabinet who want the prime minister gone are “sitting there fat, dumb and happy and letting me do the dirty work” rather than risk their careers by publicly trying to force Johnson out of office. The Guardian has reported how MPs believe allies of Tory MPs such as Penny Mordaunt and Jeremy Hunt are already making preparations for leadership bids.

 

Baker has represented Wycombe since 2010 but his seat is now a key target for Labour, with current polling suggesting Sir Keir Starmer’s party would win the constituency if an election was held tomorrow.

 

“People lived under barbaric rules,” Baker said. “They were told that if they deviated one iota from the law they would kill people. And they suffered for it … Meanwhile in No 10, where they should have been obeying both the letter and spirit of the rules, clearly they breached both.”

 

It comes after a report by ITV News said fixed-penalty notices had been emailed to officials who attended a “bring your own booze” drinks event in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 at a time when indoor and outdoor gatherings were banned.

 

Downing Street said on Friday evening that Johnson, who has admitted attending the garden party but insisted he “believed implicitly that this was a work event”, has not received notice of a fine in relation to the gathering.

 

But with the prime minister having already been fined once for attending his own birthday event in June 2020, there is the risk he could be fined further times, with claims that police are looking into another five possible rule-breaking events he is said to have attended.

 

The Met has said it will make no public updates on the number of fines issued until after the local elections. However, Downing Street has stated it will still announce if the prime minister receives further fines in the lead up to polling day.

 

In addition to a police probe and an investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray, the PM will be subject to a third inquiry by the House of Commons privileges committee about the Partygate scandal. It will seek to determine whether he knew about the alleged rule breaches before making his statements to MPs. An attempt to block this third investigation failed this week, amid a backbench rebellion.

 

Facing questions about the alleged parties during his final day in India on Friday, the prime minister said he would still be in power in the autumn, having set the target of signing a trade deal with New Delhi by October.

 

The problems that have recently engulfed the previous favourite to succeed Johnson, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak – over his wife’s tax affairs, and the fact that he, too, was fined for breaking lockdown rules – are seen as having destroyed his chances of following Johnson into No 10.

 

Boris Johnson should go sooner rather than later, say top Tory MPs

 

‘We can’t wait for successor to emerge,’ they claim, as Partygate revelations have become ‘too damaging’

 

Toby Helm and Michael Savage

Sat 23 Apr 2022 20.30 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/23/boris-johnson-should-go-sooner-rather-than-later-say-top-tory-mps

 

Plans to ditch Boris Johnson as Tory leader and prime minister “sooner rather than later”, without waiting for a clear and obvious successor to emerge, are being advanced by a growing number of senior Conservatives.

 

Amid mounting alarm at the effects the Partygate scandal could have on their electoral chances, high-ranking MPs are urging wavering colleagues not to dither because of worries about the succession, or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but rather to strike before it is too late.

 

One former minister told the Observer: “Things have changed. There is now a feeling that we can’t defend what is going on and that we can’t delay any longer because of the succession or Ukraine. If we don’t act well before the party conference in October, it will be too late.”

 

After another disastrous week for Johnson, during which MPs of all parties agreed to set up their own investigation into whether he deliberately misled parliament, MPs say several potential successors are stepping up campaign preparations and canvassing support – including Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt and Jeremy Hunt.

 

Last night Mark Harper, the former Tory chief whip, who last week called for Johnson to go, told the Observer he understood why some colleagues wanted to delay acting until after Partygate investigations were complete, or for other reasons.

 

But he urged them to have confidence that an excellent successor would emerge during the process to elect a new leader, even if it was unclear now who that would be.

 

“I have seen enough to reach a conclusion that the prime minister needs to go,” Harper said. “My colleagues can be confident that we have very talented people and a very robust process for selecting a new leader that will ensure we get a capable, credible successor who can set out an attractive proposition and ensure we can win the next election.”

 

He added: “I think the facts will mean that a majority of Conservative MPs will reach the conclusion that the prime minister needs to go.”

 

Another former cabinet minister said doubts over the succession were now irrelevant, such was the urgency of the situation. “A broomstick would be better than what we have at the moment,” he said.

 

The mood swung dramatically against Johnson last week after he was forced to apologise to the Commons for being fined for attending a lockdown birthday party in 2020, and then appeared to back attempts to order his own MPs to block an investigation into whether he had deliberately misled parliament by previously denying parties had taken place.

 

Many Tory MPs are waiting until the results of the 5 May local elections before deciding whether to send a formal letter of no confidence in Johnson to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. If Brady receives 54 or more such letters, a vote of confidence has to be held, and if Johnson loses he must step down.

 

The Tory peer Lord Hayward agreed that the mood had changed and succession issues were less likely to hold MPs back. “I get the impression that because people have moved from whatever position they were in to a more sceptical position, they now believe it’s just got to happen – and we’ll have the conversation about ‘who next’ when it happens. There are people moving, reaching the point of no return, even though they’re not sure who the alternative would be. It’s only a question of judging when the moment arrives.”

 

Another senior Tory MP said: “Lots of colleagues who have local elections going on have been hearing, ‘I like what you’re doing as our new MP, but we can’t vote for you while that blithering idiot is in office’. I spoke to several MPs this week who had all taken their seats from Labour. They all said the situation was terrible. They’re starting to say, it’s not whether but when – and it doesn’t matter who, as long as it’s not him.”

 

Johnson insisted during a two-day trade trip to India that he would lead his party into the next general election. But the Partygate scandal dogged him throughout the visit. Shortly before his return to London on Friday, it emerged that the Metropolitan police had started to issue fines for another party he attended – in this case a “bring your own booze” garden event on 20 May 2020. No 10 said Johnson had not been fined for attending the event, though it was impossible to say whether he would be in the future.

 

Opposition party leaders said it would be unacceptable for the prime minister to hold back information about whether he had been fined ahead of the local elections.

 

Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said: “There can be no hiding place for law breaking, and that includes in Downing Street. Boris Johnson must keep his promise and declare without hesitation if he is given another fine for breaking his own lockdown law. He has withheld the truth from the British public for far too long.”