Boris Johnson Vs Accountability

The Partygate allegations have followed Boris Johnson for over a year. His long-awaited appointment with the Privileges Committee finally happened this afternoon, and you could have got ChatGPT to transcribe the whole three hours before the meeting even commenced. The self-styled "Big Dog" tried shaking off accusations that he knowingly and/or recklessly misled the Commons. You might recall how Johnson forswore any knowledge of parties, and attempted to join in the language of condemnation that quickly blew up around them. As the dossier compiled for the hearing showed, Johnson was present at many of the gatherings he claimed to have no idea were happening. That, your honour, is an open and shut case. But this is politics, and nothing is ever cut and dried.

With overwhelming evidence weighing against him, Johnson's strategy was typically Johnson. In the lead up, he attacked the committee as a put up job. Here, though a separate investigation, news about Keir Starmer's wish to appoint Sue Gray as his chief of staff was one straw at in the wind Johnson eagerly grasped at. The average punter doesn't know nor care about the difference between the Cabinet Office and the Privileges Committee, but casting doubt on one casts doubt on all. To the untrained eye, Johnson's picture of victimisation might look like a reasonable sketch. Then in the committee itself, Johnson played more to the gallery of fans tuning in at home. The metaphors and rhetorical devices employed made his testimony sound more like a column written for the Telegraph than a last ditch effort to save his political career.

Johnson's strategy was a defiant sand-in-your-eye defence. The line was he honestly thought all the gatherings were within the guidelines because they allowed employers a certain lassitude in their application. He refused to refer to any gathering as a party, despite reams and reams of email and testimony that make clear their convivial purposes, and deliberately tried muddying the waters to suggest leaving dos, cheese and wine Fridays, etc. were essential for keeping up morale as Number 10 staff were under the twin pressures of Covid and a prospective no deal Brexit. If you were to take Johnson at face value, and there are still plenty of people who would buy a bridge from him, all that happened was a bit of hair being let down while people were at their desks fighting the pandemic. If these were against the rules, Johnson argued, his senior officials would have warned him. And for good measure, having convinced himself he'd done nothing wrong, there were a few outbursts - aimed particularly at fellow Tory Bernard Jenkin - for the evening news bulletins to chew on.

Was it convincing? Not a bit of it. But Johnson's I-always-acted-in-good-faith arguments are not meant for the likes of me. They're designed to introduce reasonable doubt when there isn't really any, and, should the Committee find against him, provide materials for a stab-in-the-back myth that's good for the North American lecture circuit or a future political comeback. However, despite the obvious contempt Johnson has for the whole process - remember, accountability doesn't apply to him - there is a chance the Tory majority on the committee won't be on board with recommending a suspension from the Commons. Some of them have their reselections to worry about. And forget Harriet Harman's fluff about leaving party affiliations at the committee room door. No Tory wants to see the party lose a seat in a by-election to Labour, and one in which Johnson's character and conduct is the main issue driving what would be a huge protest vote. We apparently won't know until after May as they don't want to affect the upcoming local elections, but politicians are inveterate leakers. I doubt their verdict will stay secret for long.

If Johnson does survive the committee, it's still doubtful he could make the return to Number 10 that he believes is his as of right. His famous luck might get him put of this scrape, but his support is too narrow and, as the marketeers might say, his brand too toxic with the public. Win or lose, today's Privileges Committee theatre is probably the last, long wheeze of an expired political career that doesn't know it's dead.

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