We should have known what we were getting with Boris Johnson

We chose someone who’d reportedly ‘rather let the bodies pile high in their thousands’ than countenance a third lockdown. Perhaps it’s time to admit that there’s a lesson to be learned

‘How many festive parties did the Tories have while the rest of us were cancelling our Christmas plans?’ (PA)

The Johnson premiership was always a disaster waiting to happen. Before the British people elected Boris Johnson in 2019, it was abundantly clear what kind of person he was.

He was accused of lying when he was a journalist, making up quotes at The Times. He’d written articles calling Muslim women “letterboxes”, gay men “tank-topped bum boys” and referred to Black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”. He’d conspired to have a journalist he didn’t like beaten up.

We knew this, and we voted him in anyway. Or rather, some of us did. I (and 10.3 million others) cast my ballot for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn – and if only things had been different.

When I voted, I picked the self-effacing bloke with a penchant for peaceful protest and jam-making; the person who wanted to talked about wanting to make Britain a more compassionate, more equal place. Someone who inspired hope in those who had never felt represented in politics; who spoke on behalf of the vulnerable, the poor and the disenfranchised.

Sadly, Corbyn wasn’t given much of a fair hearing. People ultimately decided they’d rather vote in a prime minister who made claims about £350m a week going to the NHS after Brexit, and who refused to say how many kids he’s fathered. Perhaps they liked the idea of bouncy, bumbling Boris, his blond hair perpetually unbrushed. They thought he might have some fun stories in the pub.

Well, the chickens have very much come home to roost. How many festive parties did the Tories have while the rest of us were cancelling our Christmas plans – are we on number eight, now? I hope they enjoyed the cheese and wine, the jolly Secret Santa, the “loud music pumping out” and the dancing until the early hours, while the recently-bereaved spent Christmas completely alone and people couldn’t even go to the funerals of their family members.

Johnson, that well-known stranger to the truth, has denied knowing about the parties. He’s also been accused of lying to Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests; pleading ignorance on who coughed up the cash for his ostentatious flat renovation.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

We only need to look at the current situation – more than 140,000 Covid deaths in Britain since the pandemic began, NHS staff warning that our health service is on the brink of collapse – to see that only the wilfully-naive would have any faith left in the integrity of this government. Perhaps it’s time to admit that there’s a lesson to be learned here.

We chose someone who’d reportedly “rather let the bodies pile high in their thousands” than countenance a third lockdown. Well, Johnson was pictured hosting a Christmas quiz at No 10 while social mixing was banned, and the bodies were piling high in their thousands. All the evidence was right there.