Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, rejected opposition calls to resign for attending lockdown parties but accepted that, as a rule, ministers should lose their jobs if they knowingly mislead parliament.
The investigation, led by Civil Servant, Sue Gray, will shed light on multiple gatherings that are alleged to have taken place at 10 Downing Street while the UK was under strict COVID-19 regulations, and may call for the resignation of the Prime Minister.
Johnson has consistently denied any wrongdoing, even though one of the events under investigation, is a birthday party held in his honour and allegedly attended by 30 people.
The Metropolitan Police have also begun its investigation into possible criminal breaches of Covid regulations by Johnson and his team over the past two years.
The investigation by the police, if confirmed, could complicate the release of Gray’s report, but opposition parties insisted on its publication in full.
Johnson, having a bad-tempered session of weekly questions in parliament on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, said he could not comment further on the “partygate” revelations, which is pending investigations.
“We’ve got the big calls right and we – and in particular I – are getting on with the job,” the prime minister said.
Opposition Labour leader, Keir Starmer, anticipated that the release of Gray’s report was imminent and that Johnson would give a statement in response “later today or tomorrow”.
He called anew on the Conservative leader to resign, arguing that Johnson had “shown nothing but contempt for the decency, honesty and respect that define this country”.
Snap election?
Gray, who is described as an iron-willed enforcer of probity in government, has been investigating revelations that Downing Street staff held frequent parties over the past two years while the rest of the country was on lockdown.
Johnson, who is known as the populist architect of Britain’s Brexit split from the European Union (EU), has faced public outrage over the Downing Street parties.
The prime minister attended several events, including a gathering of 30 people in honour of his birthday in June 2020, at the same time during the ban on all forms of public gathering.
Many on social media have highlighted how they missed significant life events themselves out of respect for the government’s social distancing rules, and were unable to comfort sick and dying loved ones struck down by the coronavirus.
At least, seven backbench Conservative MPs have called publicly for Johnson’s resignation. For this to happen, a total of 54 letters are required to trigger a party vote of no confidence.
But cabinet ally, Jacob Rees-Mogg, warned wavering Tories (persons who hold a political philosophy) that any successor would face strong pressure to call a snap election, emphasizing a dangerous step with Labour surging to a double-digit in opinion polls.
“It is my view that we have moved, for better or worse, to essentially a presidential system. And that therefore the mandate is personal rather than entirely party, and that any prime minister would be very well advised to seek a fresh mandate.”
Cabinet ally – Jacob Rees-Mogg
‘PM’s peril’
Headlines by media agencies on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, rather stood highly negative for Johnson, whose popularity in opinion polls has shot down amid the scandal.
The never-ending scandal
London’s Metropolitan Police force said “a number of events” at Johnson’s Downing Street office and other government buildings met the criteria for investigating the “most serious and flagrant” breaches of COVID-19 rules in Britain.
The Prime Minister noted that the UK government, from its pandemic response to economic recovery, and “bringing the West together” against Russia’s threats to Ukraine, was not going anywhere.
Johnson and his allies have tried, without much success, to calm a scandal that is consuming government energies, which could have been better spent confronting the international crisis surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
