Hostility towards the prime minister is unlikely to subside over the jubilee weekend

Editorial: The realisation is slowly dawning on Tory MPs that the country, and the Conservative Party, would be better headed by someone else

(Brian Adcock)

In between cups of tea, rounds of coronation chicken sandwiches and spoonfuls of platinum jubilee pudding, Conservative MPs will be spending the next few days chatting to their constituents and activists, gently gauging the mood of the country.

If the subject of Boris Johnson should ever arise, it’s likely that sentiment towards him will more often be negative than positive. Certainly, many people may be tired of talking about Partygate, just as they would love the issue of Brexit to simply disappear, but many are also weary of the prime minister and his ways.

The country has endured six months of appalling revelations about the hypocritical and reckless conduct of Mr Johnson and those around him during the Covid crisis, and all the evasions and squirming that usually follow.

Usually, a parliamentary recess and a long bank holiday help calm the political mood and remove Tory MPs from the Palace of Westminster, so that their gossip and plotting are curtailed, at least temporarily, and there is less heat on a leader in trouble. This time it’s different.

The context, which is the honouring and celebrating a life of dedicated public service by the Queen, can scarcely be helpful to Mr Johnson, who is not normally associated with selfless devotion to duty. To use the contemporary expression, Elizabeth II is subtly “throwing some shade” at Mr Johnson, and at a moment when he least needs a 96-year-old to remind the nation about what high standards and public service look like.

So the drip, drip of Tory MPs reflecting on an increasingly hostile public mood towards Mr Johnson is unlikely to slow. Indeed, it seems to be growing, as if the washers on the tap are finally about to give out.

The dissident MPs come from all sections of the party, from ardent former Remainers such as Tom Tugendhat and Stephen Hammond, to John “Brexit Means Brexit” Baron and "Brexit Spartan" Steve Baker. They number respected members of the party across the generations, including some who arrived in 2019 and owe at least part of their success to Mr Johnson’s energetic campaigning.

Some criticisms of Mr Johnson from his own side are also eloquently and clearly made, dwelling less on legal niceties about when a gathering is lawful, but more on the stark arrogance of those involved. Things that went on in Downing Street may or may not have been lawful according to the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, and may not have involved the prime minister directly, but he is responsible for them and none of it should be acceptable to the public or party.

Jeremy Wright, a cabinet minister under Theresa May, is one of the most recent rebels and gets to the heart of this political problem: “I also find it inconceivable that senior officials and advisers would have tolerated, facilitated and even encouraged the breaking of Covid rules if they believed that the prime minister would have been horrified and outraged by what was happening in Downing Street when he was not there.”

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Mr Wright is also rightly unimpressed with the various versions of events given to the House of Commons by the prime minister, and his failure to correct the record at the earliest opportunity. That is a verdict likely to be endorsed by the Commons committee on privileges when it comes to consider Mr Johnson’s case in the coming weeks. He is unlikely to be exonerated and will face some sort of sanction, another depressing "first" for a sitting premier.

Meanwhile, fresh allegations about lockdown continue to emerge, and continue to distract the prime minister from “getting on with the job”. Was there, for instance, another rule-busting birthday party for the prime minister, organised by his wife Carrie who invited him to join her upstairs in the flat where “I’m with the gays”? The public has also yet to see the 300 photographs of partying reportedly viewed by the police. They will undoubtedly leak out, and add to the embarrassment and sense of betrayal.

The argument that now is not a good time to get rid of a prime minister – because of the economic crisis and war in Ukraine – is precisely the wrong way round. It is because the nation faces such challenges that it needs a leader who is not afraid of hard work and can make decisions. The realisation is slowly dawning on Tory MPs that the country, and the Conservative Party, would be better headed by someone else.

By the time the trestle tables are cleared away and the union jack bunting is taken down, many in Mr Johnson’s party will indeed be ready to get on with the job – the task of getting shot of him.