The chain of lies with which Boris Johnson has hanged himself

End of the road for Boris Johnson. After months of scandals, the British prime minister has not been able to resist the abandonment of his government, whose members began to resign until Johnson was left with no alternative but to resign. Just a month ago, Johnson seemed indestructible, beating his own party’s no-confidence motion with 59% support. But a new scandal, with the Pincher case, and new lies from the prime minister made the situation untenable.

Johnson, more than the scandals, has taken its toll on the chain of lies in which he has been entrenched every time a new case came to light. His honesty was questioned too many times and, as warned by the Secretary of State for the Treasury announcing her resignation, “there’s a maximum number of times you can apologize and move on.” Boris Johnson far exceeded that number.

Now he resigns as prime minister, but not before taking his resistance to the limit of the impossible, denying what seemed obvious. Just yesterday, in response to calls for the resignation of the opposition in Parliament, Boris Johnson answered bluntly: “Hold on, that’s what I’ll do.” He lasted another 24 hours. Reluctantly leaves Downing Street and not without first managing to fight his own times: he will continue to lead the Government until autumn, the date on which the ‘Tory’ party will have chosen a new leader.

Scandal after scandal, Johnson’s strategy has always been the same: deny, lie, hide, be indignant… to end up acknowledging the mistake, bowing his head, asking for forgiveness and guaranteeing that it would not happen again. And, in the end, it was the lies, rather than the scandals, that sentenced Johnson.

‘party gate’

In the worst moment of the pandemic, with the entire United Kingdom confined and social contacts limited to contain the consequences of the coronavirus, Downing Street held massive parties in which alcohol ran. The photos published in the British press shocked the country and Johnson himself was fined by the police for attending a birthday party.

The prime minister was forced to ask forgiveness to the country and Queen Elizabeth II also for his inappropriate behavior. As the Queen attended the funeral of her husband Prince Philip alone, scrupulously abiding by pandemic rules, Downing Street staff had been partying just the day before.

When the first rumors of the parties came to light, Boris Johnson lied saying he did not know that these events had taken place or, more implausible still, that he did not know that these ‘meetings’ broke the rules, rules established by his own Government. Boris bowed his head and apologized, but accepting that the prime minister had acted in good faith, and had not realized that what happened in Downing Street was a clear violation of the British confinement rules was impossible for the country.

[Johnson se atrinchera en Downing Street mientras los diputados hacen cola para exigir su dimisión]

Even more so when Sue Gray’s report was uncovered. The document of 60 pages, which included some photos of the parties, spoke of parties with “altercations”, “vomiting” and “binge drinking”. The investigation directly pointed to the prime minister and other senior officials and called for them to be held accountable.

The pincher case

This was the case that brought down Boris Johnson. The resignations of these days have followed accusations from an official that Johnson’s office had disclosed false information about the allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct against MP Christopher Pincher.

Boris Johnson appointed Pincher as responsible for parliamentary discipline of the ‘tories’ knowing the accusations that weighed on him. Pincher was one of Johnson’s few remaining loyalists and the prime minister needed him in such a sensitive position in the face of continuing threats of rebellion within the party itself. But when the scandal broke, Boris Johnson did what he always does: he lied. He denied that he was aware of the accusations. when he made the appointment and, once again, he was caught.

Simon McDonald, former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, sent a letter to the president of the parliamentary ethics committee, Kathryn Stone, in which he assured that Johnson had not told the truth. “The media has been repeating claims from Downing Street for days that are false. For example, that formal complaints were never filed against Mr Pincher. It is not true. Mr. Johnson was personally informed of the initiation and outcome of the investigations“, he assured.

[Cascada de dimisiones en el Gobierno de Boris Johnson: pierde a cinco ministros en un día]

The text fell like a bomb in the conservative party. Its members had been defending Johnson’s thesis in all the media and then they were met with the forced nuances of Downing Street. He first claimed that Johnson knew nothing. Later it was recognized that the prime minister had been informed, but that the complaints “did not lead to a formal file.” And each version was denied by MacDonald: “There were formal complaints and Mr. Pincher was not exonerated.”

‘wallpapergate’

One of the first scandals involving Johnson was the so-called ‘Wallpapergate’, in which the Prime Minister faced indictment for corruption after WhatsApp messages revealed that he had asked a Conservative Party donor for funds to renew his residence in Downing Street. The British media reported that the reform cost more than 230,000 euros.

Johnson’s partner, Carrie Symonds, was supervising the work, for which she would have counted on the work of designer Lulu Lytle. One of the leaks from the Daily Mail collected a few words from Boris Johnson in which he said that Symonds was “buying gold wallpaper”. “It costs tens and tens of thousands… I can’t afford it,” said the ‘premier’.

Political donations and loans are strictly controlled in the UK, with loans of more than €8,800 recorded and publicly disclosed by the commission four times a year. And, despite the fact that Boris Johnson claimed that he had paid that amount of money himself, various leaks published by the British media claimed that he had asked donors from his party for money to pay for it. Once again, the lies.

Johnson did not report the donations and, as a result, the Election Commission fined the Conservative Party more than 20,000 euros.

The Paterson case

Last year, Parliament’s standards committee recommended suspending Conservative MP and former minister Owen Paterson for 30 days after discovering he had received from private companies –for lobbying and in exchange for political favors– up to three times your salary of 95,000 euros per year. According to GuardianPaterson was charging 9,300 euros a month from the Randox company, which benefited from a 560-million-euro British government contract to carry out Covid tests.

Johnson initially backed Paterson and even tried to force Conservative MPs to vote to overturn Paterson’s suspension. Faced with media pressure and discomfort within his own party, Johnson changed his position and Paterson ended up resigning as deputy.

In the election that December, the Conservatives lost the Paterson seat to the Liberals.

The suspension of Parliament

In the summer of 2019, in the midst of the crisis to carry out the ‘Brexit’, Queen Elizabeth II ordered a suspension of Parliament in response to the request of the Prime Minister. On September 10, the suspension of the Chamber materialized, causing a stir around the country due to a decision that some called a “coup d’état.”

Although it is a common mechanism in the United Kingdom, the controversy arose because the maneuver was interpreted by the opposition as a way to prevent the opposition and the rebel ‘Tories’ from achieving stop his promise of a ‘Brexit’ Lasted October 31st.

In September of the same year, three magistrates of the highest court of Scotland considered that the prime minister had intentionally given the wrong advice to queen elizabeth ii to get it to sign the decision for Parliament to cancel its activity.

[Boris Johnson anuncia su dimisión: “Estoy triste por dejar el mejor trabajo del mundo”]