The prime minister promises a sober and difficult policy towards the chorus that predicts his demolition before the end of October
Boris Johnson celebrated his “decisive” victory in his parliamentary group’s confidence vote on Monday night, explaining to his cabinet on Tuesday that it is “important” because it will draw “a definitive line” on the breach of contract scandal. of the pandemic, the ‘party gate’. From now on, he told them, “you can only focus on what people think is important.”
“We are moving forward with the huge agenda we have been elected to in 2019,” Johnson said at the start of the meeting, which was broadcast live. “It’s something huge, huge, that we’re all a part of: to really transform infrastructure, professional training and technology, unify and balance the country, … It’s, totally, morally, socially, economically, politics, what we should do.”
The most immediate projects are the presentation of the bill that would repeal part of the Protocol on Ireland, in the Withdrawal Agreement agreed by Johnson with the European Union, and a speech on the housing problem. He asked ministers to present plans to lower the cost of their apartments and promised that the major transformation would come with tax cuts.
Two and a half years after the election victory in December 2019, the prime minister and his supporters have rejected demands for his resignation, arguing that he made the right decisions. They name four: that it sealed ‘Brexit’, that it promoted the vaccine against the pandemic, that it achieved the highest growth rate among the G7 countries in 2020, and that it led the response to the invasion of Ukraine.
They don’t mention any achievements on that election manifesto, but rather the Prime Minister’s reactions to unexpected events (the pandemic and the war). Or more than controversial issues. Brexit is not closed. It anchors a bitter dispute between London and Brussels. The 2020 measure of economic growth came after the UK lost the highest percentage of GDP in the G7 in 2019.
After winning a vote in his parliamentary group with 59% of the vote to 41%, Johnson pledges to devote himself “exclusively” to detailed and sober politics, in which he does not excel, and recreates the illusion of a leader for the entire nation : the one who, in a mandate, smoothes out the country’s economic disparities by increasing government spending and cutting taxes, after being pushed to the highest levels of World War II.
The media’s forecast is more pessimistic about its future. The Daily Telegraph, his professional home as a journalist, describes what happened Monday night as “a hollow victory ripping the Tories apart”. More subdued, “The Times,” which fired Johnson for lying in an article, describes him as “a wounded winner.”
Johnson’s governance style is based on taking measures that are popular with his voters and the parliamentary caucus. He quickly corrects when substantive protests arise, and he does so so often that pages are devoted to the number of U-turns he’s made in 26 months. “The Mirror” numbered fifty at the end of May.
The vote of 148 deputies from the Conservative parliamentary group to impeach him, if that custom is followed, would provoke an immediate attempt by the Prime Minister to appease them. An obvious way to do this would be to charge them. Among the deputies who have no positions in government, those in favor of Johnson’s resignation would have won the vote with ease on Monday.
Since it is not possible to give so many positions, the fall of the chameleon leader is predicted. Some are based on historical precedents: the fall of Margaret Thachter in 1990 and Theresa May in 2019. But analogies often lead to errors and in this case, circumstances and procedures are compared that do not really allow one to reach a conclusion.
The weekly magazine ‘The Spectator’, which he directed, is on the digital portal with an article entitled: «The game is over, Boris Johnson». Politicians and columnists agree that his leadership will not make it through the fall, as the confidence vote produced the worst possible outcome. The pound, which rose on Monday in hopes of political clarity, fell Tuesday on expectations of confusion and division.
Demolition plans are already underway. On June 23, elections to replace two Conservative MPs will measure the party’s popularity. A parliamentary committee has launched an investigation into whether the prime minister lied to the House of Commons about Partygate. His report, if convicted, would be the death blow to a politician who will try with all his art to avoid that curse.
Source: La Verdad
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