Bye-Bye Boris: An Overview of the End of His Premiership
“But them’s the breaks,” uttered Boris Johnson as he rather indifferently declared his resignation to the British public in front of the…
“But them’s the breaks,” uttered Boris Johnson as he rather indifferently declared his resignation to the British public in front of the ever recognisable Number 10 Downing Street front door.
After Theresa May’s rather unfortunate, unproductive term concerning Brexit in 2019, she resigned as prime minister. Arising from the settling dust was no other than Boris Johnson. After all, the former Mayor of London had been a strong advocate for Brexit, which helped his case as he campaigned to become the one who would actually lead them out of the EU.
2019 Election
“Get Brexit Done” was the key frequency that he had broadcasted to the public, as he called for a snap election less than half a year since he assumed power. Sick and frustrated of the lack of progress on Brexit, the message seemed to resonate with the public as the conservative party had won a substantial victory, totalling 365 seats in parliament with an 80 seat majority. This victory was often hailed as the largest conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987.
Shortly after this massive victory, all seemed to be smooth sailing for Johnson. With a new Brexit deal negotiated and passed as law, the UK was finally set to leave the European Union, and bid farewell to the group at the end of January 2020.
With all the relatively short lived success, he announced his resignation just less than 3 years after he took office, much like his predecessor. Where did it go wrong for Johnson?
COVID-19 Pandemic
The first notable instance would have been regarding his response to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. He shrugged the virus off when most of the rest of Europe started implementing drastic measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions.
A report from the Committee of Public Accounts had found that the government lacked detailed plans on how they were going to deal with the pandemic. Furthermore, it was also revealed that it had not learnt from the past pandemics, such as the MERS and HIV outbreaks.
The report also had crucially stated that a lack of risk management was a root cause of the failure, as there was no one specific person in charge of assessing risks. This ultimately left the government exposed to unexpected circumstances, not being able to predict and prepare for the worst.
The result was an unscrupulous death toll, one of the highest in the world per capita in January 2021. Furthermore, the National Health Service (NHS) being overwhelmed with COVID cases, meant that the standard of care given was not as satisfactory as any member of the healthcare staff would have wanted it to be.
Much controversy ensued as his own Chief Advisor, Dominic Cummings had made a trip from London to his hometown in Durham less than a week after Boris himself announced the nationwide lockdown, effectively breaking lockdown rules. However, this would have seemed insignificant compared to what Boris had done during lockdown.
Partygate
Rubbing salt into the wound, Johnson allegedly held multiple parties and gatherings under lockdown. In early 2021, photos of Johnson at parties in Downing Street surfaced, going against the very rules that his own government had set at the time.
Further infuriating the public, Boris repeatedly denied these parties had broken any lockdown rules. He had stated in parliament that “all the COVID guidelines were followed”. As more and more hard evidence surfaced, an investigation was opened into this matter, led by Sue Gray.
In her report, she had investigated 16 events that took place, breaking COVID laws. Her findings generally agreed with the consensus that the gatherings and excessive consumption were inappropriate; the government did not meet the standards it was expected to hold itself to.
Billion Resignations
The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was when Chris Pincher was hired as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Conservative Party. However, in late June 2022, he resigned from the position as he admitted to sexually harassing two men. As if this was not bad enough, it had been made clear to Boris that he was a serial offender, with allegations as far back as 2017.
When questioned whether he knew about this, the Prime Minister’s office declined having any knowledge of the allegations made before he was appointed as Deputy Chief Whip. However, a former civil servant, Lord Simon McDonald, and Boris’s own former Chief Advisor, Dominic Cummings, disputed the claims. They both mentioned that Boris had been briefed about Chris Pincher’s past allegations.
Following suit, the Prime Minister’s office finally broke down and revealed that Boris had known about this matter. Not long after, a slew of ministers started to resign, beginning with top cabinet ministers such as Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid. In total, 62 ministers resigned in that period of time.
Finally on 7 July 2022, breaking under the political pressure, Boris resigned.
Legacy
In a Sky News interview, John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons had called Boris Johnson ineffective, indecent and dishonest.
His predecessor, Theresa May, was critical of the partygate scandal as shown in this particular PMQ session. To which he obviously could not properly answer without deliberately lying.
In other words, Johnson’s reign would probably be remembered by his supporters as one of victory and deliverance. This would of course be in regards to the absolutely cherry picked Brexit deal that he had negotiated, as well as the facade of his bombastic take on Ukraine, distracting from the entire partygate. They would probably also mention his charismatic and easy-going personality traits as a crucial factor of his success.
For others, Boris’s image would have been tainted with the monstrosity that was his premiership. Highlights would include his mismanagement of the entire COVID pandemic, partying his way through it as millions suffered in isolation; a hypocrite who believed his own rules do not apply to him. His desperate attempts to cover this up by lying only exacerbated his case, not to mention the plethora of scandals that happened that were not included.
[Written by: Teoh Jin. Edited by: Miza Alisya]