The prime minister is living on borrowed time, according to Simon Heffer, who says even the MPs who “prostituted themselves to support Boris Johnson” know that the game is up for him.
Allegations of another lockdown breach in Number 10 have surfaced this morning after the PM “shared what he knows” with senior civil servant Sue Gray about other alleged gatherings.
The Mirror said Mr Johnson attended a leaving do before Christmas 2020 during which he gave a speech to mark the departure of his defence adviser Captain Steve Higham.
The leaving do claim is the latest in a long line of allegations about rule breaking in Downing Street, with Ms Gray looking into a litany of possible events, including a “bring your own booze” garden party during the first coronavirus lockdown that Mr Johnson has admitted he attended – although he insists he understood it to be a “work event”.
Writing in the New Statesman, Heffer said the “game is up” for Johnson.
Describing the investigation as “meaningless”, he said the PM will likely “carry on as though nothing has happened, creating a series of further distractions to take the heat off himself, and trust it blows over.”
Nadine Dorries’ attack on the BBC is the first example of that, while sending warships to the Channel to deal with immigrants will be the next distraction.
But ultimately, as Heffer notes, there is a “sense in the parliamentary party that MPs are responsible for inflicting on the country as its head of government a man who not only cannot tell the truth, but who doesn’t care that he can’t because he feels such contempt for colleagues and the public that it doesn’t matter.
“It is a definition of shamelessness; and an increasing number of MPs, rebuked by their constituents about Johnson’s conduct, are realising they are being asked to defend the indefensible and wrecking their own reputations as a result.”
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