From partygate to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and finally the Chris Pincher scandal, Boris Johnson’s resignation was a long, long time coming.
As Johnson ’s time in power comes to an end today, here are seven women who feel cheated by the failures of his Government.
At the community cafe in Nottingham, Gisella Sobarasua is finishing her shift after a busy morning serving families in St Anns.
What was once a thriving estate, is now a shell of what it used to be with rows of derelict shops, little provision for young people and deprived families relying on foodbanks.
After finishing her shift Gisella takes her belongings and drops them at a friend’s house before she starts her second job. She cares for an elderly lady in the neighbouring area of Sneinton.
Gisella, 60, has been homeless for over a year and has been sleeping on friends’ sofas or in her tent.
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Nottingham, like many towns and cities across the country, is facing a national housing crisis, where it is thought 200 families are bidding for one council property.
Gisella is just one of tens of thousands of people Johnson and his Government has repeatedly failed during his time in power.
As the outgoing PM’s final hours at No 10 come to an end, we look at the pledges and promises the Government made in its Tory Manifesto and how they have cheated people along the way.
Housing
When Johnson was elected in 2019, his Government manifesto pledge was to build 300,000 homes a year by 2025, instead just 245,000 were built in 2019, falling to 216,000 in 2020/21.
During a speech at Blackpool and The Fylde College in Blackpool in July, Johnson admitted he couldn’t give a "cast iron guarantee" the Government could hit the target by 2025.
Gisella says: “All politicians spout, they all talk to get elected and he is no different to anyone else. I don’t trust any of them, I want a home, people of my age are being lost in the Neverland, they don’t care about us.
“We need more of everything, I know people with lots of kids living in two-bed flats and they need a three-bed, but they are not getting it. There are plenty of two-bed flats in St Anns and they are giving them to single people instead of families, it is a domino effect.
“Where are people like me meant to go, there is nowhere? There is a massive housing crisis across the UK and in Nottingham part of the issue is that people are allowed to buy ex-council property at discounted prices and rent them.
“I am living in what is described as a continuously deprived, under-privileged low-income area, where private rentals reach £800. This has to stop. There is a misuse of property as well as shortage of properties.”
Gisella has been placed on the Homelink site run by Nottingham City Homes where people can bid on properties, but says since she turned 60, she has been told to live in sheltered housing now.
Levelling Up
When we last visited Homeless Street Angles in 2019 - the same year Johnson was elected, the charity was supporting just eight families compared to 256 this year.
The charity in Leeds initially ran an outreach programme on Thursday evening feeding rough sleepers. They also helped people find suitable housing and helped to furnish it.
Alongside this, they now run a busy food bank delivering food parcels to families.
Now joining forces with other charities and services Homeless Street Angles are levelling up their community to keep people afloat.
Co-founder Shelley Joyce says: “People are being referred to us from many services including Government-funded services, because they are just so inundated, they can’t cope with the flux of those needing help. Services are being stretched beyond their limit.
“There is just nowhere else for them to go and get support from. So many families who were just scraping by on a weekly basis are being tipped over the edge, it is heat or eat now.
“You have to look at Brexit, Covid and now the energy prices, it is beyond the rate of inflation, it is crazy. I don’t understand how this can be allowed, all these people high up in the companies earning millions while others are struggling to live.
“Whenever we have excess of anything we share it out with other charities to help each other out, it has brought the community closer together but without the Government intervention so many more people will end up homeless.”
Hospitals
As the NHS braces itself for another winter, there seems to be very little sign of any new hospitals being built to reduce the pressure of cancelled appointments and postponed operations.
In the Tories 2019 manifesto the Government had promised 40 new hospitals, but the promise looks unachievable before the next general election.
Just one hospital has been completed, while building work has started on seven and many others are refurbishments of existing buildings.
Dr Jackie Applebee, a GP from Tower Hamlets in London and chair of Doctors in Unite, says the current “hospital estate is really old and not-fit-for purpose”.
She adds: “We have fewer hospital beds per head for population to any other comparable European country. We are one of the worst and people need to be in hospital.
“As a GP, what this means for me, my colleagues and patients is that they can’t be seen in a timely manner. They are having to deal with pain and mental health issues for much, much longer than they would have to if there were adequate provisions.
“It makes me absolutely furious, the Government lies about the NHS all the time, ‘oh we can’t afford it’, ‘oh it is expensive’, ‘oh it is broken and we need to make changes’. They don’t need to make changes, they need to fund it properly.”
Dr Applebee says some patients are now using their savings to go private for treatment, with some paying bills of up to £6,000.
She adds: “The NHS is one of the most cost-effective systems in the world, the Tory Government just hate, they will do and say anything to get rid of it.
“You can have as many shiny new buildings and all the space as you like, but you also have to have the staff but the morale among NHS staff is absolutely rock bottom.
“The Government has to stop lying about the NHS, it is not a burden, the facts speak for themselves. It needs more investment, we need new buildings, more beds, more facilities, more investment in community services, like district nursing to support people to be at home and then the workforce to be paid and treated properly.”
Police Officers
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson vowed to put an extra 20,000 police on the streets by March 2023.
But after decades of Tory police cuts, it is understood that there is only one neighbourhood officer for every 2,400 residents, according to the Labour party.
Earlier this year, an analysis of official figures showed real-terms staffing levels for neighbourhood policing were substantially below what they were 10-years-ago.
In 2012/13, there was one neighbourhood officer or PCSO for every 1,650 residents and this dramatically reduced to one for every 2,400 residents by 2021/22.
Now women’s rights campaign group, Reclaim These Streets are not only calling for more officers on the streets, but vigorous training and for misogyny to be made a hate crime.
On March 15 last year, Johnson made a promise to make misogyny a hate crime, but just six months later, he backtracked saying there was an “abundant” existing legislation to tackle violence against women and girls.
Jamie Klingler, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, says: “There is no point putting more police officers on the streets unless there is massive training in misogyny, racism, and homophobia. I don’t want another 150 Wayne Cozens on the streets. The police have just killed the confidence in women and it just makes it so much worse.
“The Government has it in their power to make actual change, but instead it is all about the office, or the amount of money they spent on Rwanda then actually doing or using community impact to make anything better.
“There is nothing demonstrable, there has been no real change since the death of Sarah Everard Nessa and Sabina of how we exist, how we get home and how safe we are, literally nothing.”
Cost of Living
As energy costs are set to soar again next month, it will leave children hungry, pensioners unable to heat their homes and families struggling to put food on the table.
They have been failed by the Government again, as inflation hits 10.1% in new 40-year high as the Bank of England warns that a recession is looming next year.
Sheila Correll, 80, from Lincolnshire, spent last winter wrapped in layers of clothes, a hat and a hot water bottle, as she was unable to afford the heating.
Now this summer she has spent many months growing her own food in her garden and stocking up on wood for winter.
Sheila says: “Things are going to get worse, I am paying £96 a month for my gas and electricity, that is just the tip of the iceberg with the new tariffs coming in on October 1.
“We don’t know what we will be paying then, it is just ridiculous, we can’t afford it on our pensions. I am very worried indeed. I have stopped buying luxurious and certain foods like steak and fish, which I brought weekly.
“I’m making my meals stretch over three or four days. I’m eating a lot of salads with cheese or something on top. I have worked hard all my life and now I am living like this, it isn’t nice. It will be a dreadful winter. I feel so sorry for people, some only have £50 a week to survive.
“It is disgusting the way Boris and this Government has treated us. These ministers earn millions, what do they know about how we have to live, they don’t give a damn, they don’t know how the ordinary person in the street is living, they ignore us, the poor, they are running this country and its people into completely stressful situations.”
Covid-19
A damning report last year showed the Government’s failing in the handling of the pandemic, which could have saved thousands of lives.
Ministers made a “serious error” by taking a “gradual and incremental”, according to a joint probe by the commons health and science committees.
From closing schools down late to abandoning testing people in the community to not vaccinating key workers like teachers, the failures have been catastrophic.
Vicki Coleman from Burnley lost her sister Donna, a college teacher who died from Coronavirus, aged just 42.
Last year Vicki, 47, backed the Mirror’s call for an urgent vaccine for teachers on the coronavirus frontline.
She says: “We feel cheated, we feel like we lost a sister, when it could have been prevented, there was no reason for her to be at work at that time, in an environment where the cases were the highest in the country and the college was doing nothing to protect them.
“Boris partying and stuff is just wrong, you don’t lead a country and expect everyone to follow the rules that you don’t follow yourself.
“Donna could have been at home delivering, they were previously delivering remotely before. She felt scared to go into work, she wanted to be there, but she didn’t feel protected.”
No Funerals
Beavered families were left devastated when ‘lying’ Johnson, wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak were handed Partygate fines when they broke their own lockdown laws.
The PM paid £50 earlier this year for a party at 2pm on 19 June 2020 in the Cabinet room - where staff presented him with a cake and sang Happy Birthday while indoor gatherings and singing at Covid funerals were illegal.
Meanwhile families like Hannah Brady were only allowed to have a funeral with just nine people, while many were deprived of saying goodbye to their loved ones altogether.
Hannah Brady, 26, from Manchester lost her father Shaun to Covid in May 2020. The factory worker and father-of-two spent 42 nights in a coma before he died.
Hannah, who is part of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: “When Partygate first came out, Boris claimed it was a work meeting for 25 minutes, but my dad’s funeral was only 20 minutes.
“We had nine at the funeral, we stood around a hole in the ground in the rain, we couldn’t hold or touch dad’s coffin, we had to provide our own music, one of us carried a speaker alongside us, it was an outdoor funeral, it was really inhumane.
“It felt like a kick in the teeth, while we were doing right by him and protecting the NHS, those that made the rules were breaking them really flagrantly, thinking they were an exception to the rule because they have probably been exempt from rules their entire life.
“People like my dad, low-paid key workers, like cleaners were put at risk by people nipping to Marks and Spencer to get a suitcase full of booze, that is what makes me angry.
“I think Boris has failed my father and everyone who has lost someone.”
