Boris Johnson’s survival will be a test of endurance
Margaret Thatcher is oft quoted on the green benches of the House of Commons. But it is not often that it is a Labour leader taking the words of the architect of many modern ideals of Conservative politics and using them against a Tory prime minister. In the wake of an “update” from Sue Gray’s report, Sir Keir Starmer bellowed Thatcher at Boris Johnson: “The first duty of the Government is to uphold the law. If it tries to bob and weave and duck around that duty when it’s inconvenient, if the government does that, then so will the governed, and then nothing is safe—not home, not liberty, not life itself.”
Johnson’s speech, however, was aimed more at the tempestuous MPs who hold his fate in their hands sitting behind him than at his opposite number. He assured them, “I get it and I will fix it” as he made the most full and frank apology any of us could have imagined escaping his lips. For once, for just a moment, he gave up trying to wriggle out on the technicality of calling the gatherings “work meetings” and he accepted that the behaviour of those within No10 fell short of what was expected of them.
“Sorry for the things we simply did not get right and sorry for the way that this matter has been handled. It is no use saying that this or that was within the rules,” he said.
But with the Prime Minister under active investigation by the police and Sue Gray outlining a failure of leadership in No10, there was still an outpouring of anger in the Commons. Theresa May was among the loudest of voices demanding to know if Boris “had not read the rules, had not understood the rules or thought they didn’t apply to him”.
Former cabinet secretary and Tory grandee Andrew Mitchell said what many were thinking and called on Johnson to resign. In the face of such fury, Johnson’s promise to “sort out the command structures” of Downing Street fell flat.
But as with anything, time is the most powerful weapon. The police investigation will drag on for some time and Johnson will fight hard to capitalise on the public’s collective exhaustion and plough on by sheer force of will.