Boris Johnson leaving 10 Downing Street (Victoria Jones/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)The partygate scandal is cutting through on the doorstep particularly in London before the local elections, the Standard has learned.
Activists are finding that disgruntled Tory voters are considering switching to another party, or staying at home, on May 5 after the Downing Street parties furore was reignited with Boris Johnson being fined £50 for breaking Covid laws with a birthday party in No 10.
Multiple sources said this trend was being picked up particularly in the capital compared to other regions. Some former Conservative backers are mulling supporting the Liberal Democrats, Greens and independent candidates, according to one source.
It was not clear how many will switch directly from the Tories to Labour in a number of key battlegrounds in the local elections.
Labour is pouring activists into Barnet as it seeks to seize Margaret Thatcher’s former council.
But if the Tories suffer a dismal result, they may also then be battling to cling onto the flagship councils of Wandsworth and Westminster.
A Conservative source told the Standard that the partygate affair was playing particularly badly in Wandsworth where polling experts have predicted the Tories might lose control of the borough to Labour for the first time in 44 years. “Even amongst our voters in what is a sound, low tax borough there is real nervousness about the effect Boris is having on the doorstep in terms of their prospects,” the source said.
“There was already significant unease before he was fined. How many more fines will there be before polling day?”
Ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, London Minister Paul Scully said Mr Johnson, if he is fined again, might use a “similar” defence as he did for his birthday party breach of Covid laws on June 19, 2020.
Scotland Yard is understood to be investigating up to five other events attended by the PM in Downing Street.
Mr Scully told Sky News: “We need to look at each of those events in the round, they may be different circumstances. There may be a similar defence that the Prime Minister is taking in terms of that he believed it was within a workplace situation with the same people that he was just heading to a meeting with minutes afterwards.”
He also signalled that the Government might oppose a Labour move to have the privileges committee investigate whether the Prime Minister knowingly misled Parliament over partygate by denying that Covid regulations were flouted in Downing Street.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was set to table a motion later today which will ask MPs to vote on whether to refer the Prime Minister to the committee to determine whether he misled the Commons and whether his conduct amounted to contempt of the House.
Mr Scully said the Prime Minister had accepted “that police have found him to have broken the law”.
When asked whether Mr Johnson himself accepts that he broke the law, he said: “It’s speculation. I haven’t spoken to him,” adding, though, that the Prime Minister had acknowledged that he made a mistake, and he now wanted to “get back to the day job”.
Mr Johnson was flying to India today on a trade mission and to urge New Delhi to take a tougher stance against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said if Mr Johnson is fined again it may be that the “ground will shift” against him among Tory MPs.
