Boris Johnson’s disgrace is only deepening. On Tuesday, the House of Commons will hear a new prime ministerial statement on so-called Partygate, trailed over the weekend as “a plea for perspective”. But from any reasonable standpoint, he will surely look shamed and desperate. Johnson reportedly faces more fines for breaking his own lockdown laws – and, by implication, further proof of his lies. May’s local elections, and now a byelection in red wall Wakefield, draw closer. And as he doggedly hangs on to power, the vacuum at the heart of his government is now impossible to ignore.
Long spells in power tend to leave parties short on ideas and devoid of any sense of purpose. But thanks partly to the prime minister’s entirely self-centred understanding of politics, this government’s sense of moral and political rot is something else again. A question now screams out for an answer that no one seems able to provide: six years on from the 2016 referendum and nearly three years into Johnson’s time at the top, what is left of British Conservatism?
