Authority drains away from Prime Minister Johnson

It has not been a good week for the government, despite vaccine progress. Confusion over the rules splitting the country into new Covid lockdown tiers of varying severity, an embarrassingly large parliamentary revolt over passing the legislation required to implement those new restrictions and then carnage on the high street has piled on the misery. And it is only Wednesday.

There is just the little matter of a no-deal Brexit to sort out and we are done for the week…

Authority is draining from Johnson as disillusionment with his handling of the pandemic grows. He looks exhausted and unhappy. We have had chaos amongst his No. 10 staff, rows with devolved governments and regional majors and U-turns galore. In order to get legislation passed to secure these new tiers of regional restrictions, Johnson was forced to implore his backbenchers in person in the Lobby not to revolt against his plans. 53 Tory MPs ignored him with another 16 apparently abstaining. Only the Labour Party’s abstention saved the day.

Increasing numbers of Tories feel the economic price being paid to suppress Covid is becoming too great. Many of them believe that Johnson and his government are too supply-side driven, overly steered by the needs of a sometimes unaccountable NHS and an ever-growing army of scientists enjoying the media limelight.

Outside Brexit and trying to manage the pandemic, it feels Johnson is lost. He wanted the top job badly but never had a clear idea of what to do with it when he got there. It was why he was so attached to his senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, to fill the vacuum. Now he is gone, Johnson’s only real policy is spending huge sums to ‘level up’ the North versus the South. It must be galling for him to watch his popular chancellor then take the credit for this. You can sense the tension rising.

My Westminster contacts tell me Johnson was widely perceived as a stop gap leader to see off Corbyn and there is no great loyalty to him. Umm…buyers’ regret…? There are rumours Johnson may be ousted within a year as a rejuvenated Labour Party under Keir Starmer scores hits. Apparently, a few letters have already gone into the 1922 Committee, which is the voice of Tory backbenchers, calling for a new leadership election. Incredible, when only a year ago Johnson won a General Election with an 80-seat majority.

Who knows? It still feels too early to get leadership jitters and a vaccine is on its way to hopefully defeat Covid. Perhaps MPs will relax by the Spring. But Johnson is currently on the ropes and is unlikely to fully recover.

Britain’s version of Trump may go the same way as his great supporter. Another blow to populism, because ultimately it is competence that counts, and there will be few tears shed across a good part of the political divide if that happens.