The time for Johnson to go is now

A better title for this blog would be ‘Spot the difference: ‘law makers, law breakers’ but sadly it is already being used and used everywhere.

The position of Johnson and, sadly perhaps, potentially the impressive Chancellor, is untenable. You cannot impose laws on the rest of us and be found breaking them yourselves. How can the integrity of parliament making any laws now remain intact after this if at least Johnson remains in office? There would be no moral authority to pass them and have us obey.

They were the future once…

The next few days and weeks are very dangerous for the Tories. If their leaders can be fined for breaking lockdown laws with the PM presiding over Downing Street staff sharing at least 50 fines across 12 parties, what will voters deduce? And that is before potentially further fines and the likely gruesome full report from Sue Gray into these parties is published.

Many will say Johnson is unfit for office, but they will also conclude so are the Tories as a whole if they can’t act to remove him quickly. Tainted by association will be the obvious narrative. The Opposition must be licking their lips and Starmer may actually want Johnson to stay in office in private whatever he calls for publicly. Johnson provides a ripe target. Surely, the Tories realise this?

And what nonsense it is to excuse Johnson because of the war with Ukraine. Domestic morality cannot be turned on and off for international events. Our response to supporting Ukraine is a government one not the personal fiefdom of the Prime Minister. Any successor would undoubtedly maintain our current stance. Probity in a healthy democracy contrasts sharply with Putin’s brutal, corrupt regime.

So, the scene is set for the Tories to redeem themselves by changing their leader or the scene is set for much more certain defeat, but indications suggest they will not. Whilst Johnson may well be ousted if May’s local elections prove disastrous, it may be too late by then. The damage will have been done.

Think about the narrative. The first serving Prime Minister to break the law amidst heart-breaking lockdown restrictions. A Chancellor appearing to dodge taxes. One law for us, no laws for them. A cost-of-living crisis as the backdrop. A tired Party in office for too long, stripped of its moral authority. It all feels, for those that can remember, very 1992-1997 except the Major versus Johnson comparison would not be fair on Major.

The current best leader of the Tories they never had, the former Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, put it succinctly:

‘Met confirms what we already knew: the PM introduced liberty-curtailing rules for public health reasons. This caused huge hardship for those separated from ill or dying loved ones. He then broke the rules he imposed on the country and lost the moral authority to lead. He should go.’

It is that simple and good Tories know this. Johnson’s time is up, and they should remove him now before it is too late for them all.