London In May 2020 there was a state of emergency corona in Great Britain. During the first lockdown, a maximum of two people were allowed to meet outdoors. The police patrolled parks and beaches. Those who picnicked were reprimanded over the loudspeaker or received a ticket straight away. In a national park, officials even followed a few hikers with a drone.
Under the circumstances, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s private secretary invited a hundred employees to a garden party on Downing Street on May 20. The weather was “lovely”, he wrote in a circular. Bring your own alcohol. Around 30 accepted the invitation and, according to eyewitnesses, were personally welcomed in the garden by host Johnson. According to the Times, one participant quipped that one had to watch out for the drones.
The garden party plunges the prime minister into the worst crisis of his term in office. At first glance, the rule violation may seem like a triviality next to the historical challenges posed by Brexit and Corona. Especially since the events were 20 months ago and the country is currently ticking off the pandemic.
But according to political observers, “Partygate” could cost Johnson his office. The idea of the government celebrating while the population suffers hit a nerve. According to a survey, 66 percent of the British are calling for Johnson’s resignation. Conservative MPs are furious at the “sheer idiocy” in government headquarters.
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Johnson tried the forward defense on Wednesday. “I want to apologize,” he said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time in Parliament. He knows that the population is angry with him. He regrets “that we did not do things differently that evening”.
“I thought it was a work event”
Johnson said he was in the garden for 25 minutes to greet people. Then he went back to his office. “I thought it was a work event. In retrospect, I should have sent them all to the offices. “
Apparently, the declaration did not even convince its own MPs. There was an icy silence on the benches behind him. The statement is so ridiculous that it offends the British public, said Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer. “Will he now do the right thing and step back?”
It’s hard to see how Johnson can recover from that blow. His authority seems to be gone. The attempt to sit out the scandal has failed. When reports of lockdown Christmas parties surfaced on Downing Street a year earlier last December, Johnson initially denied that any parties had taken place.
As more and more celebrations became known, the prime minister was forced to launch an internal investigation. Top civil servant Sue Gray is considering a total of seven government celebrations in May and December 2020. Gray’s verdict is expected next week.
In any case, Johnson’s calculation that the excitement would subside during the Christmas break did not work out. With the unveiling of the invitation to the garden party, the TV broadcaster ITV rekindled the debate this week. Even individual Conservative MPs are publicly calling for Johnson’s resignation. “You can’t be the head of a government that tells people to obey rules and then breaks the rules yourself,” said Douglas Ross, head of the Scottish Conservatives. “If the prime minister has been to a party, I can’t see how he can survive it,” said MP Nigel Mills on the BBC’s Newsnight.
The MPs can force a new election of the party chairman if 54 letters of no confidence are received by the spokesman for the conservative backbenchers. In the vote, Johnson would have to gather more than half of the parliamentary group behind him to stay in office. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister Liz Truss are considered to be possible opposing candidates.
Johnson has weathered many storms. But this time the prospects seem bad. Even if the official investigation should exonerate him, the prime minister will have difficult weeks ahead of him. Given the soaring inflation, economists warn of a crisis in the cost of living in the country. And in the local elections in May, the conservatives are threatened with the next setback. By then at the latest, according to a popular theory in the government district, the Tories could bring about the overthrow of Johnson.
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