The beginning of Boris Johnson's political career's demise may occur next week. For the guy who four years prior earned the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher controlled UK politics in the 1980s, it's a remarkable turnaround.
A parliamentary committee looking into whether Johnson intentionally misled Parliament by denying that any lockdown regulations had been broken in 10 Downing Street—at the time his official residence and place of employment as prime minister—during the Covid pandemic will hear testimony from Johnson via television.
Though he is no longer leader, Johnson still looms large over the governing Conservative party – and is still a headache for the current PM, Rishi Sunak.
A seemingly never-ending string of controversies that led to his departure as prime minister, according to numerous polls, made him extremely unpopular throughout the nation. Despite this, there are still some vociferous Johnson supporters within the party who think he is the target of a witch hunt, but much fewer than a year ago.
To varying degrees, these supporters would like to see Johnson return to the frontline – or even potentially Downing Street – before the next election as they believe him to have some kind of Midas touch, something the party could do with as it trails badly in the polls.
The danger for Johnson lies in the conclusion of the committee’s investigation, whenever that comes.
The focus of its inquiry is whether or not Johnson knew he was misleading Parliament when he said that all rules relating to Covid-19 were followed in Downing Street during national lockdowns. He made these claims in December 2021.
Subsequently, police issued over 100 fines to people working in Downing Street, including Johnson himself. Many of the events where rules were deemed by the police to have been broken were also attended by Johnson. It will therefore be up to Johnson to explain why he believed no rules to have been broken – and why he made the claim in Parliament. In some cases, these events were parties, where people wheeled suitcases of wine into the building while the rest of the country was locked up at home, unable to see dying relatives. Even Johnson’s director of communications at the time admitted that they couldn’t explain how the gatherings were within the rules.
Misleading Parliament is a breach of the ministerial code which governs ministers’ behavior.
The committee could recommend that he is suspended from Parliament. This is where things could start to get messy for Johnson and the Conservative party.
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