LONDRA – “We can’t go on like this. We can’t continue serving this government. We resign.” Stop. Perhaps the political demise of Boris Johnson. A “coup” is underway in Westminster by an increasingly large faction of the Conservative party that wants to get rid of the prime minister. The resignation announced tonight by the finance minister Rishi Sunakthe most important department in the UK after Downing Streetand from that of Health, Sajid Javid, trigger the most serious, and possibly lethal, political earthquake for Johnson. Whose political career, as never before, now seems to have really counted hours, and to have come to an end.
Fatal, for the 57-year-old prime minister, will most likely be the case with Christopher Pincher. That is the deputy “chief whip”, the one who indicates and regulates the votes of the conservative group in the House of Commons, who resigned last Thursday after a shameful evening at the Tory’s favorite club, the Carlton in Mayfair, during which, drunk filthy , sexually assaulted two young conservative activists.
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The problem for Johnson is that Pincher has been doing things like this for years, according to various accounts of his alleged victims. And Boris had been informed several times, both as foreign minister and later as head of government. Nonetheless, Johnson named Pincher “deputy chief whip” just a few months ago.
But more politically, the prime minister lied “once again” according to his critics. Because Downing Street, yet another scandal exploded against the leader, first declared that Johnson was unaware of Pincher’s misdeeds, even though he knew all of Whitehall. Then he admitted that some rumor had reached him. Then, when the former Secretary General of the Foreign Office this morning, Sir Simon McDonald, wrote and proved on Twitter that Johnson had lied yet again, the prime minister said first “don’t remember”, then “apologized”. From there, everything started to come down.
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Of course, despite the gravity of the situation, no one expected such immediate resignations of the ministers closest to Johnson. But, unfortunately for the prime minister, the Pincher case is the classic straw that broke the camel’s back after the “Partygate” scandal of the Downing Street parties during the lockdown and the vote of no confidence by conservative MPs whose prime minister he had only survived a few weeks ago. But that had seriously damaged Johnson’s reputation.
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Today, anonymously, even his closest allies were writing messages like “it’s over”, “there is no more hope”, “Johnson out”. Or they refused to go and defend him on TV. A sign that the circle is getting closer and closer. Today’s very heavy political landslide could trigger other excellent resignations in the next few hours, such as that of the vice-president of the conservative party Bim Afolami.
Of course, Johnson is unlikely to throw in the towel. But now his political career seems to be over. If the last vote of no confidence of its deputies won it with only 58% of the votes, the next will be sunk, barring miracles. In a few days there will be elections for the new leadership group of the Conservative Party commission and at that point specific rules will be approved to permanently get rid of the prime minister. He has said it many times. But, never like in this one, however Boris Johnson it seems to be really over.