At a hustings in Sevenoaks in December 2019 I was loudly heckled when I suggested that Boris Johnson was unfit to be Prime Minister. I pointed out that he had been sacked twice for lying, had been a disastrous Foreign Secretary, and most recently had his atempts to muzzle Parliament blocked by the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately for the country, that assessment has been borne out by the events of the last two years. It is not just the government’s lethal incompetence, which led to the highest Covid death toll in Europe, and the worst economic hit. It is not just their botched Brexit, which will give us headaches for a long time to come. Those were bad, of course, but the defining characteristic of the Johnson government has been its dishonesty, with the Prime Minister leading the way. So-called Partygate is only the latest example of it.
The pattern is now familiar. First the Covid laws are broken by the people who introduced them. When that comes to light the official denials begin. Only when the evidence is overwhelming do we hear ministers admiting the truth, or attempting – as Boris Johnson did last week – to cover themselves with a fake apology.
More than ever at this time we need a government with the moral authority to lead and take difficult but necessary decisions. That’s why the Prime Minister has to go – and I think many of those hecklers would now agree.
Paul Wharton Source: Sevenoaks Chronicle, p.16, 20/1/22