The Times view on Boris Johnson’s position: Game Over
Boris Johnson is still clinging to office in Downing Street, despite the resignations yesterday of Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Sajid Javid, the health secretary. That is a mistake. He has lost the confidence of his party and the country. Just two weeks ago, the Conservatives suffered historic by-election defeats in two previously solid seats. That highlighted the depth of hostility to Mr Johnson in very different parts of the country and prompted the resignation of the party chairman. There is no conceivable chance that Mr Johnson, who failed to secure the backing of 148 MPs in a confidence vote last month, can recover his authority to provide the effective leadership that the country needs at a time of acute national crisis. Every day that he remains deepens the sense of chaos. For the good of the country, he should go.
What has brought Mr Johnson to this position is the same character flaws that have dogged his entire career: his persistent lying and flagrant disregard for the codes and conventions that necessarily underpin public life. These two failings were on display once again in his response to the latest scandal, surrounding Chris Pincher, who was forced to resign last week following accusations of sexual assault. Not only did Mr Johnson appoint a manifestly unsuitable candidate to an inappropriate job with responsibility for party welfare and discipline, but when this became apparent, his first instinct was to dissemble and then get others to speak untruths on his behalf.
The full extent of Mr Johnson’s lack of truthfulness only became apparent following the extraordinary intervention of Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office. The prime minister had first claimed that he was not aware of any allegation against Mr Pincher, then any specific allegation, then any unresolved specific allegation. Lord McDonald made clear that this was untrue and that the prime minister had been personally told of a specific allegation against Mr Pincher in 2019 which had been upheld. Mr Johnson’s less-than-convincing excuse was that he had forgotten. As with Mr Johnson’s ever-changing explanations over Downing Street parties, when he and his staff flouted their own lockdown rules, the public know when they are being taken for fools.
Mr Johnson’s serial dishonesty is utterly corrosive of effective government. His untruthful answers regarding Mr Pincher have damaged the reputations of those ministers who took to the airwaves to repeat them. They have damaged the trust between ministers that is essential to the operation of collective responsibility. Mr Johnson’s lack of truthfulness has further damaged the credibility of his civil service spokesman, just weeks after he was forced to apologise to the media for lying over the parties scandal. It is a measure of the damage to the integrity of the civil service under the weak leadership of Simon Case, the over-promoted cabinet secretary, that he remains in his job. The truth is that no one in Britain or abroad can any longer trust a word this government says.
Nor is the prime minister’s dishonesty limited to questions of personal conduct. Mr Sunak, in his resignation letter, focused on Mr Johnson’s reluctance to tell the public hard truths about the state of the economy and level with people about the tough choices that lay ahead. As Mr Johnson’s political difficulties have intensified, so he resorts to ever more fantastical policy announcements that do not survive contact with reality. That only further undermines public confidence. This is no way to run a government. If Mr Johnson will not quit, the 1922 Committee should make clear that it will move swiftly to change the party rules to facilitate a new confidence vote. There is still time, if it moves fast, for the Conservative Party under honest, respected, responsible leadership to recover its reputation and win the next general election. Under Mr Johnson, there is no chance.
The Times
