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Less than three years ago, Boris Johnson led the Conservatives to their biggest election victory since 1987.
Now the prime minister lost the support of his deputies and resigned. How did the situation come to this?
The Chris Pincher Case
On Wednesday, June 29, Chris Pincher MP, then Conservative deputy leader, went to a private members’ club in London. According to him, he drank too much and embarrassed himself in front of everyone.
He was accused of molesting two men, leading to a flurry of charges, some dating back years. First, Downing Street said that Johnson was not aware of “specific claims” about Mr. Pincher before appointing him as deputy chairman in February. Ministers later repeated this, although it turned out to be incorrect.
On July 4, the BBC reported that Johnson was aware of a formal complaint. The next day, a former civil servant, Lord McDonald, said the Prime Minister had been told personally about the complaint.
Johnson later admitted he had been told in 2019 and apologized for appointing Mr Pincher as deputy chairman.
The “Partygate” scandal
In April this year, the prime minister was fined for breaking anti-covid rules after attending a party on his birthday in June 2020.
He also apologized for going to a Downing Street garden party during the first lockdown since the spread of COVID-19.
Police issued 126 fines to 83 people for breaking lockdown rules in Downing Street and Whitehall. Last December, Johnson told the Commons that “all instructions were fully followed”.
He is now being investigated by a Commons committee into whether he knowingly misled Parliament.
The cost of living crisis and rising taxes
Inflation has increased significantly in 2022, to the current rate of 9.1%.
Many things were out of Boris Johnson’s control. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, has driven up oil prices and the cost of food.
And while the government has taken some steps – for example, cutting fuel duty by 5p per liter – there was a tax hike in April. National Insurance rose by 1.25 pence in the pound.
The government said the tax hike would pay for health and social care and changes starting this week softened the blow, but anyone earning more than £34,000 a year will still have to pay more.
“In the midst of the worst cost of living crisis in decades“, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said in April, “the government chooses to raise taxes on working people”.
Owen Paterson
In October 2021, a House of Commons committee recommended a 30-day suspension for the then Tory MP Owen Paterson.
The committee said he broke lobbying rules by trying to benefit the companies that paid him.
But the Conservatives, led by the prime minister, voted to end his suspension and set up a new committee to look into how the investigations were carried out.
After an outcry, Paterson ended up resigning. Johnson later admitted that he had erred in his handling of the case.
Lack of focus and ideas
Boris Johnson won his overwhelming majority on a clear and easy to follow policy.
But since then, his critics said, there has been a lack of focus and ideas in Downing Street.
His former adviser-turned-chief critic, Dominic Cummings, repeatedly accused him of being “an out-of-control shopping cart”, bouncing from position to position.
Others questioned the prime minister’s philosophy, or, indeed, whether he had one. In June, Tory MP and former minister Jeremy Hunt accused Johnson of a lack of “integrity, competence and vision”. Hunt spoke ahead of a confidence vote, which Johnson won, but complaints were growing louder. BBC
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