Hasta la Vista, Boris Johnson: The fall of the British Prime Minister

Hasta la Vista, Boris Johnson: The fall of the British Prime Minister

 Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,

Didn’t even try and put him together again.

This is what it has come down to. Somehow this four-lined revivified nursery rhyme manages to aptly describe the resignation of Boris Johnson and capture the essence of what British Politics has come crumbling down to.

On 7th July 2022, Thursday Boris Johnson announced his resignation as the U.K’s Prime minister and the leader of the Conservatives party. Addressing citizens outside Downing Street, Johnson announced that he intends to act as the prime minister until a new Tory leader is elected.

This announcement was made following the immense pressure applied on Boris after many spoke up against him succeeding in the Chris Pincher scandal. But, this scandal just played the role of a needle, bursting the balloon of all the scandals, controversies, and poor decisions paired with lack of implementation that has made Boris Johnson the politically ostracized and ridiculed ‘meme’ figure he has become today. 

With leading the Conservatives to one of its most colossal victories less than three years ago, this has been one of the fastest political unraveling's that shall be recorded in history. Boris Johnson's short-lived term has been riddled with controversies, scandals, poor decisions, and statements that have led to his downfall.

How did it all come to this? For that, we must review everything that has occurred in his term starting from some of Boris Johnson’s Earliest decisions, that lead to his increasing popularity i.e his action on the Brexit front. How has he come to ‘exit’ politics within only 3 years?

The Tipping Point: The Chris Pincher Scandal

The most recent scandal that has led to the speedy de-escalation of hostilities in Britain was the Chris Pincher Scandal. 

In February, Chris Pincher was advanced to the deputy chief whip deputed position with the responsibility of keeping the Party members voting in support of legislation that backed up the government's policies and programs.

However, within just a few months of his appointment, Pincher got involved in one of the biggest scandals where he was alleged to have attempted to grope several men while inebriated at a bar. 

This was, as expected, followed by Pincher's resignation and an apology letter to Boris that stated (amidst a lot of drivel) he got highly intoxicated and demeaned himself and others at the gathering.

What agitated the Party members and the citizens was that this wasn’t Pincher’s first time being accused of impropriety; in fact, to the least, it was his third. Not only that but in 2017, Pincher also resigned from his post after a Conservative Party activist accused him of harassing him and making advances toward him. 

Despite already being the center of mass scrutiny Pincher was bailed out and brought back to politics on the same high standing in 2019 by Boris. 

This, however, was not a good enough point of realization for Pincher for he was again in 2019 was accused of misconduct.

This time the leading issue revolved around the fact that Johnson was too well aware of Pincher's past misconducts and his light behavior towards them to have made a fair decision. He has been the center of criticism for making a biased decision against the welfare of its citizens.

Initially, Johnson’s official spokesman said that Boris was in the dark about the earlier misconduct and incidents. This was backed up by several cabinet ministers as well.

However, Boris Johnson and everyone who was supporting him were caught red-handed when the former head of Britain’s diplomatic service, Simon McDonald, published a letter calling out the government for misleading the public, clarifying that Mr. Johnson was briefed about the investigation and placing the complete onus on him.

Johnson’s office then had no other option but to countermand stating that Mr. Johnson had been ‘unable to recall the briefing earlier.’ 

However, all counters came to an end when Boris Johnson himself admitted to being conscious of allegations against Pincher and said he had committed a ‘bad mistake’ by advancing him.

 

Following Johnson’s Statement, Pincher resigned and was suspended as an MP of the Conservative party. Within a few days of this Decision, Boris Johnson also Stepped down as Prime Minister of the UK.

While this was a significant and consequential Scandal to ever go down in history, This was just the tipping point. Truth is, the British System under Boris Johnson had been underway for some time.  

So What all, till now, has led to the fall down of the parliament of the UK?

 

What has led to their Downfall?

 

Boris Johnson has recently become increasingly infamous. However, I believe this is an undoing of Boris Johnson's long years in the office. Essentially, Boris Johnson had become a Prime minister, without a government.

The first red flag dates all the way back to when Boris Johnson has just come to power. From 2008- 2016 Boris Johnson portrayed himself to be a  pro-EU liberal. This stance was popular among the majority and allowed him to serve as the mayor for 2 terms. However, it was abandoned as soon as the Brexit referendum was introduced. Given the uncertain political situation with the resignation of Theresa May in 2019, Boris Johnson saw an opportunity and took it up to save his own fame. This was seen as a cynical albeit expected action from Boris Johnson’s side. Many said his act broke every rule of decency and made no attempt to pursue a coherent policy agenda beyond Brexit. However, despite facing some scrutiny, Boris Johnson was able to rise to power. However, many had already noted Boris Johnson’s short-sightedness and unpredictability and had predicted the outcomes that we see materializing today.

Another aspect that I believe added to Johnson's losing support, is his loose relationship with the truth. On Multiple occasions, Boris Johnson has been known to manipulate the truth on record leading to some of the most significant scandals to get recorded in history. In 1988 he was sacked from the Times of London for making up a quote. In 2004, he was also fired from a high post in the Conservative Party for having hidden and lied about having an affair. These scandals racked up on top of one another and have created Boris Johnson's image to be one of a falsifier in the minds of the citizens. It is very easy for politicians to lose credibility in the eyes of those who elect them and very hard to gain back their validation. In such a political system, every action counts towards your image. However Boris Johnson couldn’t keep up a respectable image for himself and like Pinocchio, most of his lies were caught dead to rights.

 

Boris Johnson has also received a lot of heat for the mounting cost-of-living crisis in the U.K. According to the Office for National Statistics 80% have seen a hike in their cost of living as of 2022. 

Most have been affected to the level that they can't afford to pay £850 with this hitting person on a lower income, home renters, those without qualifications, or had dependent children the hardest.

 

After being attacked, Mr. Johnson stressed that the measures that were emphasized by chancellor Rishi Sunak to help households such as taking 5p off a liter of petrol and lifting the National Insurance threshold, etc could improve the situation. Other actions that Mr. Sunak reconfirmed also included households receiving a rebate on their energy bills and a 1p cut to the basic rate of income tax.

 

However, these promises were just perceived as uncorroborated promises just to satiate or settle down the citizens and keep the scales tipped towards themselves. However, it was evident that as the British people kept facing worse falls in living standards on record, the Prime Minister kept escalating the taxes.

 

Moreover, these promises weren’t enough to cover up the Partygate Scandal. One of the most notable scandals and the ultimate downfall of the British government, this scandal stemmed from twelve boozy government gatherings amidst the quarantine when it was the peak of COVID-19. Johnson was also charged as per the law, making him the first sitting British PM found to have broken the law. This negatively affected his public image and led to an increase in the masses' distrust of the government and caused their words to lack credibility. 

And finally, Johnson was criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. To be fair, it is harsh to expect someone who not only failed to understand the importance of following simple basic WHO-mandated guidelines regulated to protect humanity but prioritized a birthday party (Partygate) over the need to quarantine to take command of keeping a whole country safe from a deadly pandemic.

Even after being a country that leads in the medical front and has gained much expertise in the field with full capabilities (infrastructure and equipment-wise) of handling an emergency like this, the pandemic was one of the most important public health failures that the UK had ever experienced. And this mostly has a lack of implementation or a sense of seriousness in treating the disease.

 

Conclusion and what comes in the future?

While Johnson's downfall seemed to have happened within a blink, I believe there is more than enough evidence to prove that this had been underway for quite some time (arguably since he came into power). 

 

While Boris Johnson’s casual law-breaking (one that I believe will leave behind a culture that will remain embedded in Downing street for quite some time), countless scandals, and the tendency of maintaining an opaque wall between the citizens and himself were thought of have been just brushed off, it is clear that the citizens and the gatekeepers of a governmental political system did not turn a blind eye to it.  Now Boris Johnson has been finally pushed out of the office he has clung on to as his government collapsed around him over the last couple of days.

Boris Johnson has never had a reputation for integrity and competence; nor did he care to maintain one. The onus of the downfall of the government goes completely on him and his underestimation of people’s and other fellow party members' awareness of his actions. Boris Johnson was not a leader, he was just a vote winner who played on an aggravated/heightened political agenda at the right place and right time swaying the masses. However, once the elections ended, there wasn’t much left to do. 

What comes next then? While it's still highly variable as to what might happen in the current situation it is clear that there is a need for a prime minister who is capable and clear-headed enough to restore dignity and self-respect to the country and the government.