Katie Nelmes

We’re only three years into the Boris Johnson government, and his downfall has finally arrived. Johnson is clearly a leader like no other, surviving scandal after scandal. But what tipped his closest allies over the edge, and why did it take so long?

The Early Days of Johnson’s Premiership

Three years ago seems like another world. Boris Johnson, the man who always dreamed of being ‘world king’ finally got the job he always wanted – Prime Minister.

In July 2019, Johnson was tasked with delivering on Brexit, a job which his predecessor, Theresa May, failed to do after three defeats in Parliament. In an attempt to surpass criticism over Brexit, Johnson decided to prorogue Parliament. This led to the Supreme Court ruling that Johnson’s prorogation unlawful, and the Prime Minister had lied to the Queen.

Following this shocking Supreme Court ruling, Johnson later punished rebels by expelling 21 MPs from the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, and the longest serving MP at the time, Ken Clarke.

Eventually, a general election was called in December 2019, which Johnson won decisively with a mandate to ‘get Brexit done’. The country got behind Johnson’s campaign with the Conservatives winning 365 seats (43.6% of the vote), giving Johnson an 80 seat majority.

The Owen Paterson Scandal

“The first of three major events that caused Johnson’s downfall”

Paterson was the Conservative MP for North Shropshire. In November 2021, Paterson was investigated by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards for breaking lobbying rules and earning almost three times his £82,000 salary for doing so. Boris Johnson initially tried to defend Paterson, which he later admitted was a “total mistake”.

With hindsight, many critics of Johnson see the Paterson incident as the first of three major events that caused Johnson’s downfall – Paterson, Partygate, and Pincher.

Partygate

The pandemic was an obstacle that no world leader anticipated facing with decisions having to be made that we’ve never had to make before. It presented its challenges for Johnson, with criticisms that the UK locked down too late and that the government prioritised contracts for allies. Johnson was also alleged to have said “let the bodies pile high” when deciding whether to implement another lockdown.

“the vaccination schemes were well organised and executed”

Johnson tried to defend himself by admitting that these were unprecedented times and that he “got the big calls right”. It is difficult to deny that the vaccination schemes were well organised and executed, protecting the most vulnerable communities as quickly as possible. However, the pandemic was the setting for one of his most high-profile controversies.

In the Winter of 2021, multiple stories broke revealing that parties had taken place in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns. Johnson faced a  report from senior civil servant, Sue Gray, that detailed events including ‘Wine Time Friday’ where there was “excessive alcohol consumption”, sickness, a “minor altercation” and red wine spilt on a wall and “boxes of photocopier paper”. In addition to these details, there was a general “lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff” and a sense that attendees had successfully gotten away with breaking the rules.

“the first [Prime Minister] to have broken the law”

Johnson became the first British Prime Minister to be questioned under caution by the police and the first to have broken the law. He remains under investigation by the House of Commons Privileges Committee for the allegation of deliberately misleading Parliament about his knowledge of the parties. The possible sanctions are a temporary suspension from the House of Commons, but the Committee cannot directly force the Prime Minister to resign.

By-elections

Johnson has faced a number of defeats in by-elections throughout his premiership, including North Shropshire and Chesham and Amersham, with the only gain being Hartlepool in May 2021. Most recently, the Conservatives lost the by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, leading to the resignation of the Conservative Party Chairman, Oliver Dowden.

Vote of no confidence

The threshold of 54 letters from Conservative MPs (15% of the party) was reached early last month. While 41% of the Conservative Party voted against Johnson, this figure was 75% among backbenchers. The rules of the 1922 Committee mean another vote cannot happen for a year.

Misconduct

Allegations of misconduct from MPs have become more frequent in recent months. This includes Imran Ahmed Khan being jailed for sexually assaulting a 15 year old boy, Neil Parish admitting to watching pornography in the House of Commons, and an unnamed Conservative MP accused of rape.

Chris Pincher

Most recently, however, is the allegations of sexual assault against Chris Pincher, the now former deputy Chief Whip. This is particularly damaging for Johnson as he promoted Pincher despite being aware of these allegations, even allegedly quipping “Pincher by name, Pincher by nature”. Initially, Johnson denied knowledge of the allegations and multiple ministers were sent out to defend this line of argument. Eventually, Lord McDonald confirmed that Johnson was “not telling the truth” because he was briefed in person about the allegations.

Resignations

After days of confusion about what Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher, two key cabinet ministers resigned – Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

The Chris Pincher scandal seemed to be the final straw for many MPs. There were over 50 resignations in less than two days, giving the Johnson government the new record for the most resignations in 24 hours. This includes his Education Secretary, Michelle Donelan, who had been in post for less than two days, and the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, among many other ministers. Even his Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, who felt unable to resign for security reasons, expressed his will for MPs to remove Johnson.

The end

After a tumultuous two days, Downing Street have announced that Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday 7th July.

Johnson faced an ultimatum – to either leave now on his own terms or face a long battle with his own MPs trying to force him out. Whilst he tried to pursue the latter option, Boris Johnson was left with a sliver of a government which was becoming unable to function, and Johnson was finally forced to admit defeat. He aims to remain in-post until a new leader of the Conservative Party is chosen to be Prime Minister.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1545012078762725377?s=20&t=aySLa4GHHU-Sz4iHUay7Hg

Featured image courtesy of Number 10 via Flickr. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.

Katie is a final year Politics university student and an aspiring political journalist, currently working as a Twitter Editor for Empoword Journalism!

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