The ‘partygate’ and drinking party scandal of 10, downing street did not go down with 2021 but has crossover into the new year with a more ferocious bite on Boris Johnson. The year 2022 has not reset the situation but taken the pressure to another level while the call to quit is also rising.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and other senior backbenchers have urged him to stand down. But cabinet ministers have urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an inquiry into alleged Covid-rule breaking at No 10.
The rule is that if 54 or more of the party’s MPs should post a vote of no convenience on the leadership of Johnson, then the PM’s position will become immediately contestable and a new PM may likely take over the UK leadership.
The anger of most people was that in a period when the UK was under lockdown from social gatherings, when they were sick, dying, restricted and restrained due to the pandemic, the PM and some of his close aids recklessly throw caution to the wind and operated a contrary health protocol within their space, boozing and partying at 10 Downing Street.
Johnson had previously denied knowledge that any rules were broken in Downing Street during the pandemic, however, recent accusations, investigations and emails like the one sent by Reynolds had placed the PM in a very tight corner “After what has been an incredibly busy period it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No10 garden this evening.”
Now that the chicken has come to the roost and for the very first time, Johnson admitted before the parliament on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, that “he had attended the party at 10 Downing Street on May 20, 2020, when COVID-19 rules limited social gatherings to a bare minimum and said he understood the anger the revelations had caused’.
"I know the rage they feel with me over the government I lead when they think that in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules," an ashen-faced Johnson told parliament.
The PM appears to have self-inflicted his person and leadership trust with ridiculous deception of the breach and untoward sleazes. He has opened up a can of worm that has fueled the opposition to take a strong swipe at him, thereby calling for his resignation.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Johnson must now resign and that the public thought him a liar. "The party's over, prime minister," Starmer told him.
Though there has been a lot of support from the cabinets and other well-wishers of Mr Johnson, the ongoing investigations by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant and the votes by the MPs will be the decider of the ongoing scandal.
One can only wish Johnson that charismatically led the BREXIT move of the UK out of the EU, won a landslide electoral victory to become the PM in 2019 and led the world’s emission reduction initiative at COP26 have another opportunity to prove himself to the people of the United Kingdom.
