Dominic Lawson was in no mood to hold back in his criticism of Boris Johnson’s administration today.
The Sunday Times columnist described the current government as ‘unserious’ following a week of fresh Partygate allegations that have contributed to a major slump in the polls.
Almost half of the people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 now want him to resign – just two years into his premiership.
A new Opinium poll put Labour ten points clear of the Conservatives on the back of the revelations, with 41 per cent backing Sir Keir Starmer’s party versus 31 per cent (-3) for the Tories.
Reflecting on another chaotic week for the government, Lawson said there is a threat that a prime minister who “prospered by his lack of seriousness may be brought down by it”.
He added that a friend of his had been offered a back-room job in Downing Street in spring of last year. Describing the incident, he said:
“By his account the get-together began at 4pm and ended at 11pm. He described the large quantities of wine circulating (apparently cheap and not good); outside, in the garden, the PM’s soon-to-be wife, Carrie, was having her own noisy party with mates, around a fire pit.
“My friend decided not to take the job, on the grounds that “this didn’t seem like a serious operation”.
Lawson went on to say that Johnson’s insistence that the BYOB event was not a party has “as much credibility as Bill Clinton’s claim that what passed between him and Monica Lewinsky did not constitute “sexual relations”.
“The crucial difference between the two deceits is that Clinton’s unconventional use of the Oval Office did not make the American people feel they had personally been made fools of (even if Mrs Clinton did).
“Whereas a nation that endured a painful — at times heartbreaking — curtailment of personal liberties by government decree can react in only one way when it discovers that the man who made those rules regarded them as optional in his own case.”
Read the full column here.
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