Mired in scandal, British PM Johnson fights to shore up authority
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[February 04, 2022]
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson was fighting on Friday to shore up his authority
after a senior aide resigned over his false claim that the leader of the
opposition Labour Party failed to prosecute a notorious child sex
abuser.
Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority since
Margaret Thatcher, has repeatedly refused to resign over revelations
that he and some of his staff attended Downing Street parties during
COVID lockdowns.
Those revelations raised questions about Johnson's often chaotic style
of leadership and have led to the greatest threat to him since he took
office. They follow a series of other scandals.
Johnson admitted that problems needed to be fixed at the heart of
Downing Street, which serves as both his home and the nerve centre of
the British state.
Munira Mirza, his head of policy who had worked with him for 14 years,
resigned on Thursday over Johnson's claim that Labour leader Keir
Starmer failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile during his time as
director of public prosecutions (DPP).
Johnson's finance minister, Rishi Sunak, said pointedly that he would
not have made such a remark. Starmer has cast Johnson's comment as a
ridiculous slur - and conspiracy theory - that shows Johnson is unfit to
be British leader.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/04/images/ads/current/LPL_small%201.gif)
Ministers presented three additional resignations which followed Mirza
as evidence that Johnson was fixing the problems at Downing Street and
"taking charge", though there remained considerable anger at Johnson
within his own party.
"I'm deeply troubled by what's going on," Huw Merriman, a Conservative
lawmaker who chairs the transport select committee, told BBC radio.
Merriman said that if a prime minister did not shape up then he would
have to go, adding that many Conservative voters were upset and saddened
about recent events at the highest levels of the British state.
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![](../images/020421pics/news_q65.jpg)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside 10 Downing Street
in London, Britain, January 31, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/04/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_VALENTINES_2020.png) A member of Johnson's policy unit
also quit on Friday, the editor of the Conservative Home website
said. Downing Street declined immediate comment.
While opposition parties and some of Johnson's own lawmakers have
called on him to quit, there is concern that toppling a British
leader at this juncture would leave the West weakened as it faces a
potential military crisis in Ukraine.
With inflation soaring at the fastest rate in 30 years, anger at the
government is likely to deepen ahead of the May local election.
Leading rivals within the Conservative Party include Chancellor of
the Exchequer Sunak, 41, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 46.
To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 360 Conservative MPs in
parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of
the party's 1922 Committee.
A snap poll by YouGov conducted on Jan. 31 showed that 63% of voters
wanted Johnson to resign, though another YouGov poll showed just 31%
thought he would resign.
Asked what was going on in Downing Street, junior energy minister
Greg Hands told Sky: "Resignations have been made, resignations have
been accepted."
"This is the prime minister taking charge," he said.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by Angus
MacSwan)
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