Today marks a year since Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party after numerous scandals prompted more than 50 members of his government to resign in protest. Since then, the scandals have only continued and we’ve had two PMs overseeing a party constantly on the cusp of meltdown.
Now there’s Westminster chatter about another leadership challenge and possibly a third PM by Christmas. It’s being touted that there are so many MPs now convinced that Sunak is leading them to disaster and so unhappy with his leadership that enough are ready to throw their names into the 1922 committee calling for a challenge. And the potential leaders that are being speculated about now openly on Twitter are all women. They include Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Gillian Keegan, Claire Coutinho and Miriam Cates.
Whether it’s true or not is almost beside the point. The fact that another coup is even being talked about suggests just how miserable Tory MPs are about their chances at the next election.
Adding to this blue mood, a new poll in the Yorkshire Post puts Labour well ahead in the Tory safe seat of Selby and Ainsty. The poll from JL Partners has Labour at 41 per cent and the Tories at 29 per cent.
The by-election is one of four that have been triggered in the wake of Johnson’s resignation honours list which sparked no small amount of controversy. Nigel Adams resigned as MP for Selby and Ainsty after being knocked from the honours list but maintained that he was still “committed to the Conservative Party”. Adams has endorsed the Tory candidate Claire Holmes although her odds aren’t favourable.
Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, also announced her resignation after being “duplicitously and cruelly” struck from the list “by two privileged posh boys who went to Winchester and Oxford.” Namely, Rishi Sunak and his aide James Forsyth. However, Dorries has yet to officially stand down.
Of course, Johnson resigned as an MP in the wake of the recent Privileges Committee report which found that he intentionally misled parliament in spectacular fashion. This has triggered a third by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, but Labour are less confident here and Starmer has had to painfully sit on the fence as his candidate for the seat bashes Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ.
The fourth by-election the Tories are facing is in Somerton and Frome as David Warburton stood down amid allegations of sexual misconduct which he called “malicious”. Although, he did admit to taking cocaine after indulging in “incredibly potent” Japanese whisky.
A potential fifth by-election looms with the standards committee’s recommendation that Chris Pincher should face an eight-week ban from the Commons for groping two men at the Carlton Club last year. It is unclear if the whisky he was drinking was Japanese or not.
And while the Conservative party lurches from chaos to disaster, Johnson is laughing all the way to the bank as he opines in the Daily Mail about such lofty matters as his late-night chorizo binges.
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