After a wave of resignations within his government, British Prime Minister Johnson finally announced his departure. Initially as head of the Conservative Party, he intends to remain Prime Minister until the autumn. His opponents fear one last attempt to cling to power.
Even with the best Teflon pans, the coating eventually gives up. Then they are so scratched that you can’t get the fried egg off, making them useless for frying. In politics there is a certain type that works in a very similar way. Former US President Donald Trump was someone with a Teflon coating. He himself had claimed that he could shoot someone in the street and still not lose any votes. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also had a similar coating.
A few days ago she got her decisive scratches – triggered by the Pincher affair. Chris Pincher resigned as Vice-Whip – a sort of group manager – during the week. He was accused of sexually harassing two men while he was very drunk. It was only in February that Johnson appointed him to the post, where he shared responsibility for enforcing group discipline. Similar allegations against Pincher were said to have been made before, but Downing Street had emphasized that Johnson was not aware of any specific allegations.
But the situation changed on Tuesday. The Prime Minister’s spokesman admitted that Johnson had been informed of similar allegations against Pincher in 2019. Johnson was initially unable to remember this, the government said afterwards. Johnson was nevertheless accused of covering up for the misconduct of the newly appointed Vice-Whips.
For Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Minister Sajid Javid, the Pincher affair was one too many – with them two of the most important ministers left the government. These resignations triggered a chain reaction: Over the past three days, the British “Sky News” counted at least 59 government members who have resigned from office. Arguably the strangest case is that of Nadhim Zahawi, whom Johnson appointed yesterday to succeed the resigned Sunak. Zahawi defended the British prime minister that evening before posting his own resignation on Twitter the next morning. In it, he called on Johnson to resign himself.
Normally, Johnson has been able to get out of such scandals – for example when the government’s “ethics adviser” resigned, or when he was accused of having had the renovation of his apartment financed by a major donor, and most recently in the “Partygate” affair. Although these scandals damaged Johnson’s credibility, he remained in office.
Which is also due to his political strategy – the distraction. Just a month ago, he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote by his party. Around 41 Tory MPs voted against their party leader. He was stricken by it, but kept going.
A little later, the British government again started a dispute with the European Union over the Northern Ireland Protocol. At the same time she was in a dispute with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which had stopped the first planned deportation flight to Rwanda. The deal with the African country was highly controversial in Britain. Hardly anyone talked about the vote of no confidence.
In an interview with ntv.de, political scientist Anthony Glees rated this strategy as typical of Johnson. His style of government works primarily through division. Rwanda’s deportations met with approval from around 35 percent of voters. “If you take a closer look, the people who voted for Brexit and the people who voted for the Tories in 2019 are in that 35 percent,” Glees said.
In terms of content, the Conservative Party had little to criticize about Johnson. Because even if most Britons rejected him in polls, he was able to win elections with this hard, conservative core. Johnson succeeded Theresa May in 2019, who failed to get a Brexit deal through the UK Parliament. Leaving the EU dominated the election campaign and Johnson won the election with his radical course. It ended up being the most Conservative Party seats since 1987, since Margaret Thatcher.
Johnson himself works with the argument. “The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he has been entrusted with a colossal mandate, is to carry on, and I will do that,” he said yesterday during the weekly question and answer session in the House of Commons. He also mentioned this mandate in his resignation speech. Nevertheless, the aura of the election winner crumbled recently – which became a problem for his party.
This was not only due to polls, but also to election results. In late June, the Tories lost two key House of Commons by-elections. The defeats were already apparent in advance. When Johnson was invited by members near one of the two constituencies before Election Day, he made a surprise appearance in Kyiv. There he made headlines for offering the training of thousands of soldiers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was another attempt to divert attention from domestic issues.
In the end, this strategy no longer worked. In his resignation speech, Johnson spoke of his achievements and how the British, for example, had the quickest way out of the lockdown. He also said that he would like to remain in office as prime minister until a successor is found by autumn at the latest. This is controversial in his party. Dominic Cummings, a former adviser who put him into office in 2019, warned against giving Johnson any more time. It would be “a nightmare” if he stayed in office. After all, everyone knows that Johnson is the Teflon master.
