The Prime Minister should,too,be worried about his own. He is in his most precarious position since entering Number 10 in the northern summer of 2019.
Johnson is used to riding emotional highs and lows.Last year he fought off a COVID death and weeks later welcomed Wilfred,his and Carrie’s first child together,and his sixth.
See the pattern? A rollercoaster of chaos. Johnson has always lived his private life this way. Observe the string of marriages,lovers,and the inability to manage his own finances which led toTory donors funding the redecoration of the flat above Downing Street,where he lives with Carrie and their family.
That arrangement breached the electoral disclosure laws and earned his party a big fine. It has also been revealed this week that the Prime Minister seemingly misled his own ethics adviser in claiming not to have known the identity of the donor behind the flat refurbishment fund until this year. Yet WhatsApp messages show him communicating with the donor and asking him for cash last November.
He is governing the country in the same way he has run his private life and the chaos is catching up to him.
The clown routine,the tug of his hair,the dressing up in ridiculous costumes,the inability to feel shame about playing the fool seemed to have got him through past crises.It isn’t working this time. Not on the public and not on his own MPs.
Johnson has some justification for staying out of the limelight for the next few days as he welcomes his newborn. He must use it wisely if he truly wants to continue as Prime Minister – something some MPs are beginning to question.
He looks tired and jaded.His wife has made powerful enemies and her outsized influence on the running of government is angering MPs.
He could earn more and work less if he just quit,says one MP. But this would also present the Conservative Party with another problem. Who can replace Boris and replicate his election-winning connection with the public?
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is viewed as politically naive and his billionaire status,through his own fortune and marriage to the daughter of an Indian billionaire,is a drawback. He gives the impression of someone who is too slick and whose ride has been a little too easy.
Sajid Javid has tried and failed before and,despite a recent promotion back into cabinet,a rebellion is already mounting against the Health Secretary who is pushing the introduction of vaccine passports,albeit in a limited form. Vaccine passports are kryptonite to a significant proportion of the Tory backbench.
That leaves the most likely candidate, Australia’s supposed best-friend Liz Truss,who presents a working-class Tory image,rails against post-modernism and claims to stand for freedom and liberty. While she excels in delivering a speech,the Foreign Minister flounders the minute she is left to her own devices.
The lacklustre but stable Labour leader Keir Starmer would put up a good fight against all three in any battle.
Which is why most MPs don’t want a leadership change or contest. They want Boris to fix the mess he’s caused.
The question is:is he willing and capable?
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