PM among officials fined in ‘Partygate’ scandal
Boris Johnson has been fined by the Metropolitan Police (MPS) for breaking lockdown laws in repeated parties held by the Tories during pandemic restrictions.
The Tories have been alternately trying to dismiss the parties as old news or claiming that they are irrelevant now because of the Ukraine crisis – but the fines prove that Johnson repeatedly misled Parliament when he claimed that no parties took place and that lockdown laws were obeyed at all times.
Knowingly misleading Parliament is a cast-iron resignation offence according to what passes for parliamentary rules for government, the ministerial code of conduct. Johnson has repeatedly abused this code, for example ignoring Priti Patel’s bullying, and will no doubt try to ignore it in his own case – but what vapours of credibility the malignant buffoon pretended to have now been blown away and his position must be untenable in the eyes of the public.
If Johnson does go, the Tories now have a difficulty: with their most likely heir apparent Rishi Sunak floundering over revelations of his wife’s tax affairs and the huge sums of public money her business received – and now also fined alongside Johnson and Johnson’s wife – and no obvious choice among the disastrous occupants of the Tory benches.
Tragically for the nation, there is also no credible alternative on the opposition benches, with Keir Starmer always eager to crawl up Johnson’s wastepipe and busy trying to appeal to diehard Tories while disgusting and sickening natural Labour voters.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.