It may seem strange to us Brazilians that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still in office after resigning nearly two months ago. But that’s how things are in the UK. This Monday (5th), the new, or, more likely, the new prime minister will be announced, after indirect elections among the approximately 160,000 members of the Conservative Party.
With Elizabeth Truss leading the polls — always in the 60%, about 30 points ahead of Rishi Sunak — Boris Johnson is dedicated to his latest acts as the country’s top leader. This week he announced an investment of £700m (£4.2bn) for the construction of a nuclear power plant at Sizewell on England’s east coast. The value, however, is not enough, and the government still needs to attract private investors to the project.
“We’re going to make it, because it would be absolutely crazy not to,” the prime minister said at the event. Boris refers to the fact that the UK is seeking more energy independence after the surge in gas and petrol following the Ukrainian War has left millions of families in a fragile situation to face what has been called a “winter catastrophe”. “, with electricity bills rising from an annual average of £2,000 to £3,600.
The previous week, Boris had made a surprise visit to Ukraine, on the day the country celebrated its independence day – and which also marked six months of the Russian invasion. “Ukraine can and will win this war,” the Briton said on Twitter from 10 Downing Street (the ruler’s headquarters in London). It was his third visit to the country, and Boris was one of the few leaders who flew to Ukraine at more dangerous times in the early part of the war. The UK has put around £2.3 million in financial and military aid in the country.
Boris Johnson was elected prime minister in July 2019 with a campaign that promised Brexit immediately. It happened after her predecessor, Theresa May (2016-2019), sent three versions of the United Kingdom’s exit plan from the European Union to Parliament – and was denied three times. Boris presented an immediate exit plan, which would take place on October 31, but that attempt foundered after losing his majority and dissolution of Parliament. In December, however, he managed to regain most of the seats in the legislative elections: his Conservative Party won 43.6% of the seats, against 32.1% for Labour.
With that, the community’s departure was made official on January 31, 2020. Since then, however, British public opinion has changed, with a majority understanding that the kingdom should have stayed in the European Union and saying that the departure was a mistake. But the pandemic was the most serious crisis faced by Boris in his nearly three years in office – and, ultimately, one of those responsible for his downfall.
The first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the country happened on the same day that the United Kingdom left the European Union. In the first months, Boris did not attend several meetings of the emergency committee to combat the pandemic and, according to scientists, the lack of an immediate lockdown, as well as the delay in closing schools and public places, contributed to the country having very high rates. of transmission and deaths.
As of last month, the UK had 205,000 dead, second only to Russia among European countries. In March, after Boris decreed the lockdown, his chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the government would pay 80% of wages for people to stay at home. The first scandal involving the pandemic took place in May 2020, when Boris’s main political advisor decided to visit his parents in the countryside during the lockdown.
Dominic Cummings had been the ideologue of the successful Brexit campaign in 2016 and was seen as largely responsible for the triumph in the December 2019 legislative elections, which gave Boris peace of mind to govern. He was also responsible for slogans such as “take back control”, used in the referendum, and “let’s get brexit done”, in the 2019 national elections.
Boris resisted enacting a new quarantine in September 2020, as the second wave loomed. Record deaths, however, forced him to accept the health authorities’ request on October 31. On December 8, on the other hand, England became the second country in the world to vaccinate against Covid-19, three days after Russia began immunization with its controversial Skylab vaccine.
The United Kingdom reached the mark of 1,328 dead in the middle of the third lockdown. Boris apologized and said he took full responsibility. In May, Dominic Cummings testified in Parliament and said that Boris was not suitable for the post of prime minister and that tens of thousands of people had died in the pandemic for his misdeeds.
Late last year, videos circulated showing the prime minister at a party in Downing Street gardens in May 2020, during the first quarantine. The scandal became known as “partygate”. Boris initially said there was no party, and in January of this year, he apologized for going to a meeting he believed was work. An investigation was opened and in April the prime minister was fined by the police (£50), becoming the first in British history to be convicted of breaking the law in office.
Polls at the time found that only 28% of voters believed Boris’ justification that he thought it was a work event, while 63% (including 52% of Conservative voters) believed he was lying. Pressured by parliamentarians and ministers, he received, in June, a vote of confidence to continue in government.
But on the last day of that month, Boris’s Conservative MP Chris Pincher resigned, saying he’d had too much to drink at a private club the night before and “shame on himself and other people.” Allegations emerged that he had sexually assaulted two men, and when it became clear that Boris knew details of Pincher’s private behavior, 13 ministers and other politicians resigned. On July 7, it was the turn of the cornered Boris Johnson to announce his resignation, paving the way for a new leadership of the Conservative Party.
