The British Prime Minister is faced with several problems at once.
(Photo: Reuters)
London For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the year ends in a crushing defeat. His Conservatives lost a by-election in their North Shropshire stronghold on Thursday. The Liberal Democratic candidate Helen Morgan won the seat with a clear majority of 6,000 votes.
Officially, it was only about a lower house, but the defeat is seen as a vote of no confidence in the head of government personally. After a series of Downing Street scandals, voters seem to have had enough of him. There is also rumbling in the conservative parliamentary group. The likelihood increases that there will be a change of government in the coming year.
North Shropshire had been firmly in Conservative hands since 1832. The rural constituency near Birmingham had also voted 60 percent for Brexit. The previous MP Owen Paterson was a Brexit hardliner. The fact that voters are now favoring the pro-European Liberal Democrats is one of the biggest political earthquakes in years. And it’s Johnson’s own fault.
The by-election was necessary because Paterson resigned in November after a lobby scandal. He had been paid as a consultant by two companies and promoted their concerns in parliament. Initially, he was only to be suspended by parliament for 30 days. But he did not want to accept the punishment and, with Johnson’s support, had the lobby rules subsequently changed. After a public outcry, the government withdrew the rule change and Paterson resigned.
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Quite a few Conservative MPs were angry with Johnson for forcing them to protect Paterson only to change their minds. Then there were the scandals on Downing Street: It turned out that Johnson had had the renovation of his official apartment with gold wallpaper financed by a party donor. The British also reacted indignantly to the revelation that several Christmas parties were held in the middle of lockdown last year – including in Downing Street.
Johnson threatens to lose its added value
The election disaster is a bad omen for Johnson, because he lives off his reputation as an election winner. If it doesn’t even deliver that, then from the point of view of many Tories it is no longer of any use. The party is known to drop its leaders when they become a burden. The polls must worry Johnson: Two-thirds of Britons say he’s doing a bad job. In a direct comparison, the pale Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer is ahead for the first time.
In June the Conservatives had already lost the southern English constituency of Chesham and Amersham to the Liberal Democrats. The recent defeat now reinforces fears that Johnson’s focus on the English north is pissing off the traditional conservative voters in the south.
Johnson has made “Leveling Up” a top priority: He wants to direct more funds into the structurally weak regions of the country so that they catch up with the wealthy south-east around the capital London. So he wants to conquer more Labor strongholds in the north. Many traditional Tory voters feel neglected.
The by-election defeat was Johnson’s second vote of no confidence this week. On Tuesday, 99 Conservative MPs voted against his new corona measures. It was the group’s biggest rebellion since the Brexit uprising against Theresa May. Even then, it was not just about Corona, but also a fundamental protest against Johnson.
The Christmas break should now save Johnson for the time being. It’s hard to organize a coup over the holidays. But the prime minister will start the new year on the defensive. Potential successors are already warming up. Foreign Minister Liz Truss and Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak are reportedly exploring their chances with MPs. Both stage themselves with perfectly posed photos on social media. Truss, in particular, tries to portray herself as Margaret Thatcher’s heiress.
There is a simple procedure for the Tories to overthrow the prime minister. Every MP can express his distrust of Johnson by letter. The secret letters are collected by the chairman of the 1922 Backbencher Committee, Graham Brady. If 54 letters come together, he will put a vote of no confidence in the group. Nobody except Brady knows how many letters have been received. On Thursday he announced that he would also receive letters of no confidence by email over the holidays. So Johnson cannot celebrate quietly.
More: Boris Johnson uses the corona measures as a red herring.