Four close aides to Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday, adding a layer to the political crisis in which the British prime minister is mired. Three of the names are linked to scandals involving parties at government headquarters when meetings were prohibited by confinement rules imposed to contain the pandemic.
A recent attack by Boris on an opposition leader, however, also weighed heavily. Among the resignations are the prime minister’s chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, the director of communications, Jack Doyle, and private secretary Martin Reynolds – the latter was the pivot of one of the cases of the so-called “partygate” for having sent an email inviting officials. from the government to a party, with the phrase “please […] bring your drink!”
Despite calls to resign, the government has announced that Rosenfield and Reynolds will remain in office for the time being. According to conservative lawmakers heard by the Reuters news agency, however, the resignations could signify the beginning of a redefinition in the government, albeit somewhat disorganized.
“Boris Johnson promised change to lawmakers. Today we see this change starting to happen and I congratulate [o premiê] for quick action”, wrote on his Twitter account the parliamentarian Stuart Anderson, supporter of the prime minister.
Earlier this week, Boris vowed to revise Downing Street rules after a government report pointed to “failures in leadership and judgment” by different members of management in allowing events to take place while the country was under tight restrictions.
The report also described the behavior around the meetings as “difficult to justify”, criticized the mistakes of those “at the heart of government” – without naming Boris – and recommended policies to ban the consumption of alcohol in public service places, in addition to the creation of whistleblowing channels.
The count covers 16 events spread over 12 dates between May 2020 and April 2021, including server meetings at Downing Street Garden, employee farewells, game night before Christmas and even a birthday party for the prime minister. The meetings are also criminally investigated by the London Police, which, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, has already received 300 images and 500 pages of documents related to the events.
Boris has often apologized for the episodes, but his popularity has plummeted — among Britons, but also in Parliament and his party.
In addition to the dissatisfaction with political problems, for the British, there was an increase in the cost of living and successive rises in interest rates.
Boris himself has worsened his situation and has been criticized by colleagues for accusing Labor leader Keir Starmer of allowing former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile to escape justice on the 31st. The journalist died in 2011, at the age of 84, and shortly after, allegations were revealed that he had abused hundreds of people, including an eight-year-old girl. Saville was never prosecuted.
At the time Starmer​ was at the head of the British Prosecutor’s Office, but had no direct involvement in the case, although he later apologized for any failures during the episode. The link between the name of the former presenter and the current leader of the opposition party is popular in conspiracy theories usually spread by extreme direct groups.
The accusation without evidence was the reason for the resignation of Munira Mirza, head of government policy, who has worked with Boris for 14 years. As she wrote in her resignation letter, the prime minister made a “misleading allegation” and “there was no reasonable or fair basis for this allegation”.
British magazine The Spectator reported that the now-former aide had written to Boris that she expected him to apologize. “It’s not too late for you, but, I’m sorry to say, it’s too late for me.”
Although he did not follow the path of Mirza, the British finance minister, Rishi Sunak, also criticized the position of the prime minister, when questioned about the case by journalists. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have said that,” he said. Sunak is now one of the main candidates to replace Boris if the current prime minister steps down.
The prime minister, for his part, preferred not to apologize, but retreated from the accusations, saying that “several people were uncomfortable” with his words. “I’m not talking about the opposition leader’s personal history when he was DPP [sigla para Director of Public Prosecutions, cargo semelhante ao de procurador-geral] and I fully understand that he had nothing to do, personally, with those decisions,” he said.
Still on the subject, he regretted Mirza’s resignation, but said he did not agree with her regarding the impropriety of her comment on the case.
The crisis in the UK also opens up on another front. On Thursday, Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister Paul Givan announced his resignation, in a scenario still in turmoil due to post-Brexit negotiations. According to the protocol, the country remains within the European single market, which means establishing customs controls on goods arriving from the rest of the United Kingdom, a solution that revolts a part of the population, attached to the British crown.
A day earlier, however, the government ordered an end to sanitary controls on food arriving at ports in Northern Ireland, a decision denounced by the government of neighboring Ireland as a violation of international law. At the time, the European Union also regretted the decision, and considered that it creates “more uncertainty and unpredictability for companies and citizens of Northern Ireland”.
Source: Folha
