Originally published in Italian as ‘Boris Johnson e il boomerang del cattivo esempio’ for Huffpost Italia on the 24th December 2021.
During these Christmas holidays, there will be little of the usual Christmas spirit in the Boris Johnson household. The main reason is that last year, when anti-Covid rules separated families and prevented citizens from attending the funerals of loved ones, at 10 Downing Street itself and at the headquarters of the Conservative party, people celebrated freely. And it doesn’t stop there. In May 2020, photos taken in the garden of Number 10 show Johnson and his wife Carrie, tasting wine and cheese with nineteen colleagues, when the rules at the time prevented more than two people from meeting outdoors without keeping their distance. Johnson’s representatives naively justified it as a ‘business’ activity.
Since the Daily Mirror released the story of the Downing Street Christmas party in December 2020, Boris Johnson’s popularity has dropped to an all-time low. In polls, the Labour Party, which has so far failed to lead in the polls the Conservatives despite all the mistakes Johnson’s government made during the pandemic, leads with six points. But the biggest blow is certainly the Liberal Democrats’ unexpected victory in the North Shropshire election– a seat not won by any party other than the Conservative since its inception. Unfortunately for the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives have not lost North Shropshire to a new attachment to their party’s values. Those who spoke to voters at polling stations repeated that people cited the same reasons for not voting for the Conservatives: Boris Johnson is not, for them, a serious leader.
During his tenure Johnson has enjoyed a lot of popularity – and it cannot be forgotten that he rules with a majority of eighty seats. Conservatives have chosen Johnson as their leader because he is very skilled in getting to the vote. He won the election for the Mayor of London, a city that tends to support the left, twice. He presents himself with an optimistic spirit, he is sensational, warm, and always disheveled. In 2019, it strengthened support for the Conservative party in the formerly Labor polls that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit – seats where it was once said that voting for Thatcher’s party was like committing a sin. Every Wednesday, when he faces the Labor Party leader for ‘Prime Ministers Questions’, he spits out populist ideas and promises as though he were in a pub instead of parliament. In this way Johnson, and his determination to fight the defeatism that has always characterised Britain, has helped the Conservatives to rid itself of the ‘Nasty Party’ label.
Under Johnson, however, the Conservative party has evolved from the ‘Nasty Party’ to the ‘Naughty Party’. Scandals surround Boris Johnson like flies near rotten fruit. His private life has always been characterized by extra-marital affairs. Its ministers have been accused of corruption and lobbying, thanks to which companies linked to the Conservative party have won lucrative government-funded contracts. The Electoral Commission recently fined the Conservative Party £ 17,800 for failing to accurately report the donations with which it refurbished Johnson’s 10 Downing Street apartment.
With Johnson there was always the risk that his maverickness would result in a loss of public confidence. And in these circumstances it is very difficult for a government during a pandemic to impose rules to limit the number of infections that are raised in one blow with the arrival of the Omicron variant.
Naturally fearful of the opposition within his own party, after it had already rebelled during the vote for imposing a covid pass in large areas and the reintroduction of the obligation of the mask in public spaces, Johnson decided to wait before reacting to the hospital crisis we are seeing in London due to Omicron. But the other reason to wait is that the British people are fed up with obeying the Johnson government rules when he himself was breaking the rules during the first year of the pandemic, when vaccines did not exist and the death rate was much higher.
A survey by YouGov revealed that one in ten Britons would ignore a future regulation limiting family contact over the Downing Street images. Half of the interviewees admitted to following the events of these holidays very carefully.
For now, it appears that Omicron has resulted in fewer hospitalisations than the Delta variant, among those who are vaccinated. But the fact that the variant is transmitted much faster than previous variants remains a concern for the medical sector in England, as there are already many absences of doctors and nurses in hospitals due to the high number of infections. Scientists would like the government to bypass it to avoid another winter of exhaustion in hospitals, another winter where interventions for cancer patients are postponed.
One of Johnson’s most infamous lies was made during the EU referendum campaign in 2016, when he said the UK was transferring £ 350 million a week to the EU – the £350 million he wanted to fund the NHS. The bad irony is that now that Johnson is Prime Minister, his lies prevent him from taking action to help the NHS when they need it most.
Charlotte Tosti 