Amid choosing new names for his cabinet as he grapples with a political crisis, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sang Gloria Gaynor’s pop classic “I Will Survive” with his new communications director.
Guto Harri, a former BBC journalist appointed by the prime minister on Saturday (5), reported the case in his first interview, in which he told the Welsh website Golwg360 that Boris “is not a complete clown”.
The duet took place when Harri — who had previously worked with the prime minister at London City Hall — reported for work. “We were laughing. So I asked, ‘Will you survive, Boris?’
The communications director said that the prime minister invited him to amend the next stanza, which reads “you have all your life to live”, in which Boris continued “I have all my love to give”. “So we had some fun with Gloria Gaynor.”
The spokesman for the British leader declined to comment on the content of the conversation between the two and whether there was in fact the singing. “I won’t go into the details of private conversations,” he said. “But, as can be expected, the two are old colleagues.”
Boris faces a crisis motivated by parties at government headquarters when meetings were prohibited by confinement rules imposed to contain the pandemic. In the last week, five close aides have resigned, three of which were linked to the scandals.
Among the resignations were the prime minister’s chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, the director of communications, Jack Doyle, and private secretary Martin Reynolds – the pivot of one of the so-called “partygate” cases, for having sent an email inviting government officials. for a party, with the phrase “please […] bring your drink!”
The layoffs came on the heels of the publication of a report by the government that pointed to “failures in leadership and judgment” by different members of the management, in allowing events to take place while the country was under severe restrictions – Boris promised a review of the rules of Downing Street after disclosure.
The document also described the behavior around the meetings as “difficult to justify”, criticized the mistakes of those “at the heart of the government” – without naming Boris – and recommended policies to ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages in places of public service, 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 apologized for the episodes, but his popularity has fallen sharply — 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.
The prime minister himself has worsened his situation and has come under criticism 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.
This Monday (7), exactly a week after Boris accused his opponent, Starmer had to be escorted by London police after being chased by anti-vaccine protesters who called him a “traitor” and questioned about the Saville case. Hours later, the prime minister, on his Twitter account, condemned the attacks against the Labor leader and called the episode “absolutely shameful”.
The accusation without evidence was also the reason for the resignation of Munira Mirza, the head of government policy, who had 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”.
The fifth resignation was Elena Narozanski, an education policy expert and adviser on women, equality and extremism. Prior to that, she had previously worked as an adviser to former Prime Minister Theresa May.
