‘In Politics You Can Delay Things But Can’t Hide’

Ishtiaq Ahmed

London: Inevitable has happened.  After months of wrangling, incriminations and posturing, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Britain, was forced into resignation on Thursday (July 7) thus opening up a real possibility that the next prime of Britain could be a person of Asian heritage. This is a mouth-watering prospect, only possible in the British democratic setup.

Some of you may recall that only recently Johnson survived the Parliamentary party’s vote of confidence.

Mr Johnson had been under severe scrutiny for erratic approach to handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic crisis. Things first came to ahead when his chief advisor and the architect of Britain’s exit from the European Community Dominic Cummings resigned on November 13, 2019.

On his exit, Mr. Cumminings made a number of public attacks on the prime minister, describing him as “unfit for the job”. He also said that the prime minister can’t distinguish “between truth and lies”.

Thins  Mr. Johnson turned from bad to worse when he was accused of allowing ‘partying’ at 10 Downing Street at the height of Covid restrictions when the nation was being advised otherwise- group activities of any type were outlawed, including social parties, religious congregations and events.

As a consequence, an investigation into ‘partying’ at 10 Downing Street was instigated. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, was given the task of establishing the truth.

The investigation covered 15 events on 12 dates between May 2020 and April 2021, all of which involved people gathering during Covid-19 lockdowns. Mr. Johnson attended at least eight of these.

The report of the investigation was published earlier this year. It established:

• Whatever “the initial intent”, many of the gatherings breached Covid rules, and whatever the pressures of the time, this should not have happened.
• There were “failures of leadership and judgment in No10 and the Cabinet Office”. Gray wrote: “The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen.”
• Security and junior staff were often treated in an “unacceptable” way, Gray found: “I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff.
• Her overall conclusion: “Many will be dismayed that behavior of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of government. The public have a right to expect the very highest standards of behavior in such places and clearly what happened fell well short of this.”

The findings implicitly laid the blame at the prime minister’s doorstep. This triggered the vote of no confidence by the conservative parliamentary party in June 2022. Although Mr Johnson won the vote of confidence by 148, it was apparent that a sizable number of conservative members of parliament 41 per cent were not happy with him.

In recent weeks, it became apparent that the vote of confidence did not help to restore the peace which Mr. Johnson had hoped for. The pressure on him to resign kept building.

Finally, the rope he was tentatively clinging to finally snapped leaving him no option but to jump off, he tendered his resignation on July 7 this month.

In normal circumstances, Mr. Johnson should stay as prime minister until the new leader of the party is appointed

However, Mr. Johnson is facing calls to leave No 10 immediately, including from former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major.

Mr. Johnson’s departure followed a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership, sparked by the dramatic resignation of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday.

He resisted calls to quit from newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi only for 48 hours.

The contest for finding a new Conservative party leader who would also be the Prime Minister has started. 11 candidates have come forward, including Sunak, Sajid, Nahdim, with a real possibility of Priti Patel also joining the contest. Each candidate needs backing of 20 conservative MPs to secure the nomination. By 12^th July the list will be reduced to two candidates who will eventually progress to the final ballot on 5^th August. However, we could have the outcome well before if one of the two final candidates withdraws before the final ballot date.

The most fascinating aspect of this contest is that the list of candidates is of diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, Britain’s diversity is truly represented at the highest level. It is very possible that the next prime minister of Britain could be a person of Asian heritage.