Gone for now, or is it ‘hasta la vista’? 

 

Hands up all who saw this coming: Johnson resigns as MP! His announcement has been sweetly crafted for maximum effect: coming out on Friday evening, just in time for the evening news, for some opinion piece writers to pen something for the weekend and to catch the front pages of the Saturday papers.

Here’s the compilation: “Newspaper headlines: ‘Johnson quits over Partygate’” (link) and here is the headline of the DM’s report, nicely summarising the whole thing:

“Boris Johnson sensationally QUITS as an MP after Partygate probe ‘rules he DID mislead Parliament’: Ex-PM lambasts ‘kangaroo court’ of Remainers who have ‘forced’ him out – saying he is ‘very sad to be leaving parliament – for now. Former leader stunned Westminster by resigning his seat with immediate effect – Launched attack on Privileges Committee led by Labour’s Harriet Harman” (link) 

There was another resignation: Ms Nadine Dorries also quit, with ‘immediate effect’, announcing her decision a few hours before BJ’s.  She’s one of the top Johnson admirers/supporters and her decision puzzled me because it came right on the heels of No 10’s announcement that the MPs on Johnson’s ‘Honours List’ would have their elevation to the ever more bloated HoL postponed, in order not to elicit by-elections in their constituencies. 

Well, that’s what No 10 said. Apparently, this isn’t quite how it happened though (all emphases are mine):

“Mr Johnson’s honours list was published on Friday, but Ms Dorries did not appear on it, despite repeated reports that she would be nominated for a peerage. A seat in the House of Lords would have meant she could no longer sit as an MP. Instead her nomination was passed back to the Lords’ vetting committee, which would have staved off a by-election in her constituency.” (link, paywalled)

Surely Ms Dorries must have known, must have been told what was happening about her elevation! Surely she must have been aware of the difficulties she’s creating for Sunak, by stepping down right now. And surely she must have known beforehand that her adored BoJo would resign that evening! And now Sunak has two by-elections to fight … all happenstance, is it? Really?

Johnson’s resignation letter has been published in full, in the DT (paywalled link) and in the non-paywalled DM (link) from which I’ll take the following quotes. Leaving aside the well-crafted, somewhat tearful-sounding justifications for his behaviour, BJ has made some troubling observations regarding this committee, chaired by the Labour MP Harriet Harman:

“Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court. Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves.” (link)

Describing himself as if he were a blue-eyed boy, trusting in ‘the institutions’, rather than a clever, hard-nosed politician, BJ writes:

“It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament.” (link)

Next he remarks that this is about taking “revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.” (link). Cynical peasants like me would of course ask what he’s done to cement Brexit during his time as PM. We’d also ask why he so clearly succumbed to the petticoat regime of Princess Nut-Nuts, sacrificing his most potent adviser, Dominic Cummings, but these questions are for the history books.

Unsurprisingly, he regards his ‘removal’ from the HoC as ‘necessary first step’ in reversing Brexit, writing:

“[…] I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in Number 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader. Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.” (link)

I found these remarks of huge interest because they document that Whitehall is indeed not just full of Labour supporters but is also actively working at undermining Brexit. I do wonder though what took an astute politician like Johnson so long to realise this! we’ve been pointing this out for a long time!

The final paragraph of Johnsons’ letter is worth quoting in full, not least because Ms Tominey for the DT refers to it in her opinion piece:

“It is very sad to be leaving parliament – at least for now – but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.” (link)

The operative words are “at least for now”. In her piece Ms Tominey explains how most of this Johnson piece seems to be driven by revenge on Sunak to then observe that “Friday night’s resignation statement-cum-party political broadcast appeared to be a 1020-word way of saying: “I’ll be back”.” (paywalled link). Is she correct? Answers on a postcard!

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by the shenanigans our MPs get up to. I am however surprised that this self-proclaimed ‘Brexit fighter’ throws in the towel, without properly fighting his corner. Why should any of us plebs fight for someone who isn’t fighting but seeks revenge for personal reasons and never mind loyalty to Party and especially his constituents? 

That’s all I have for today. Given Johnson’s moans in his resignation letter, I think some ought to remind him of Enoch Powell’s remark: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Have a lovely weekend!

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