Johnson this week tried to appease the toughest wing of the Conservatives, who were also threatening to try to topple his leadership, by withdrawing most of the current restrictions against the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson managed to momentarily weather the ravages of the crisis unleashed by parties in Downing Street during the pandemic.
The authority now awaits the publication of a crucial investigation into these celebrations that may decide its political future.
The Executive commissioned the senior official Sue Gray to establish which social gatherings were convened at Johnson’s official residence.
He, in addition to other government departments while coronavirus restrictions were in place. His report is expected to come out next week.
Although the prime minister’s allies hope that the investigation does not point directly to Johnson as responsible for the parties, there is growing nervousness among his inner circle that Gray’s conclusions leave him little room for manoeuvre.
In particular, investigators may have found an email warning Secretary Martin Reynolds that a March 20, 2020 Downing Street garden celebration attended by Johnson was against the rules, the network has revealed. ITV.
That email can show that the head of government lied before Parliament when he assured that he went to that meeting thinking it was a work meeting, which would further complicate his precarious situation.
Internal rebellion
For now, Johnson has avoided calling a motion of internal confidence on his leadership of the Conservative Party.
This is a scenario that seemed imminent this week, when a score of deputies from his own formation publicly aired their discontent with his management.
Those MPs are mostly representatives from constituencies in the north of England. It is a traditionally Labor voting area that won a seat for the first time in 2019.
Now, they fear losing it to the fall of the “Tories” in the polls.
The motion of confidence will be launched if 54 deputies request it in writing, a level that has not been reached at the moment.
Fiestas and Downing Street
The operation to prevent these 54 requests for a confidence motion from taking place has raised accusations of extortion by some of the rebel Conservative MPs.
These parliamentarians are considering making public text messages and a recorded conversation with those responsible for party discipline that they say include threats and intimidation, “The Times” has revealed.
Those affected say they have been threatened with the withdrawal of public funds from their constituencies, and even with publishing details about their personal lives, if they do not back down in their efforts to bring down the prime minister.
A Downing Street spokesman has so far declined to open an investigation into these allegations, considering there is no “evidence” to support them.
drinks until dawn
Among the incessant trickle of revelations about parties during the pandemic that have been published in recent days, the newspaper “The Telegraph” today aired details about a late-night celebration in Downing Street the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last April.
The attendees drank wine and alcoholic cocktails for seven hours, until one in the morning, and even poured drink on a printer in the offices of the prime minister’s official office, according to a witness to the newspaper.
That story contrasts with the images that the British saw the next day on television, with Queen Elizabeth II dressed in deep mourning, sitting alone at her husband’s funeral due to the rules against the coronavirus, which prevented her from being accompanied.
Plummet in polls after Downing Street parties
The decline in Johnson’s popularity has sharpened this week. According to a survey by the firm Ipsos Mori, according to which 61% of Britons have an unfavorable opinion of the Tory leader and only 22% express a positive opinion.
The leader of the opposition, Labor Keir Starmer, also does not receive the approval of the voters in that same poll. 43% perceive him unfavorably, compared to 29% who see him favorably as the future head of government.
The only politician with more positive than negative evaluations is the Minister of Economy, Rishi Sunak, one of the potential candidates to replace Johnson at the head of the Conservatives, with 37% of those surveyed in his favor and 30% against.