British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday faced an uncertain future, as he faced calls from within his Conservative Party to resign after he admitted attending a party at his official residence during a COVID-19 lockdown.
Johnson on Wednesday issued “heartfelt apologies” for attending the gathering at 10 Downing Street in May 2020, telling parliament he understood the public’s rage at the revelations.
Senior ministers rallied around to offer support to their leader, who won a landslide election victory in 2019, although media said the backing of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, regarded as a potential successor to Johnson, appeared lukewarm.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Others were more direct. The Conservatives’ leader in Scotland, along with a handful of other prominent lawmakers, called for Johnson to resign, saying his position was untenable.
“The mood isn’t great,” Conservative lawmaker Jake Berry told BBC radio.
“There is a lot of concern amongst my colleagues about the damage that these revelations are doing to the Conservative Party, but I think yesterday there was a bit of a turning point of opinion,” he said.
Johnson admitted for the first time on Wednesday he had joined a gathering held in the garden of Downing Street, saying he had stayed for about 25 minutes to thank staff at what he thought was a work event. He said he regretted his action.
Media reports have said tables in the garden were set out for food and wine, while an invitation sent to about 100 people suggested taking advantage of the lovely weather.
“Bring your own booze,” it said.
At the time, social contact was limited to a bare minimum and many people were furious that they had been unable to visit loved ones on their deathbeds or attend funerals.
In response to opponents’ demands for his resignation, Johnson said people needed to wait for the outcome of an internal investigation being carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray, whose report is expected in the next two weeks.
The revelation about the party follows similar allegations about rule-breaking by Johnson and his officials earlier in May 2020 and during a Christmas lockdown at the end of that year.
A YouGov poll for the Times newspaper, carried out before Johnson’s apology, put the opposition Labour Party 10 percentage points ahead of the Conservatives, whose lead has evaporated.
The Conservative Party is notoriously ruthless in dispensing with leaders who are feared to damage their electoral chances, most recently forcing former British prime minister Theresa May from power after three years amid bitter internal squabbles over Brexit.
To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 360 elected Conservative lawmakers must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party’s “1922 Committee,” with a small number saying they had already penned such letters.
Many lawmakers are said to be waiting for the outcome of Gray’s report before taking any action, newspapers said, while May’s local council elections could also be crucial in determining whether Johnson would face an insurrection.
“I think Boris Johnson is the right person to be the prime minister of our country, I think he is the prime minister who will win the next general election,” British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis told BBC TV.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
RSS