British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under renewed pressure following the resignation of several members of the government. What’s more, the British Prime Minister’s list of affairs is long. Partygate, donation affair and encroaching party friends. We give you a chronological overview.
Johnson also faced harsh criticism because of his Corona policy. In May 2020, his top advisor Dominic Cummings came under pressure for alleged violations of the Corona requirements. Despite public outrage, the prime minister backed his confidante, who finally announced his resignation in November. Later there was a rift between Johnson and Cummings, who then accused the prime minister of “catastrophic” failures in the corona pandemic.
In a parliamentary report, the head of government was also given bad marks for his handling of the corona pandemic. Delaying a lockdown early in the pandemic was “one of the greatest public health omissions” in the country’s history.
An alleged quote from Johnson, with which he is said to have defended himself against a third corona lockdown in autumn 2020, also triggered outrage. “No more damn lockdown – let the bodies pile up by the thousands,” the Daily Mail newspaper quoted him as saying. Johnson denied the statement.
In April 2021, Johnson came under pressure for the luxury refurbishment of the flat he shares with his family at 11 Downing Street. The Prime Minister assured that he “personally” paid for the work. But later it turned out that the renovation had been paid for largely with funds from a private donation to the Tories. Because the donation had not been properly declared, Johnson’s party was fined.
Travel with insider tips. Including free tour app
In May 2021, a parliamentary inquiry into unclear funding of a holiday trip by the prime minister was launched. Johnson vacationed on the private island of Mustique with his then-fiancé and now-wife Carrie Symonds over Christmas 2019. The cost of the stay was paid for by businessman David Ross, who is also a donor to Johnson’s Conservative Party. After a month-long investigation, the parliamentary committee concluded that Johnson’s statements about the financing of the controversial luxury trip were correct.
In December 2021, Conservative MP Owen Paterson was forced to resign over a lobbying affair. Johnson got involved in the affair in early November and tried to stop disciplinary proceedings against the Tory politician. Johnson then had to back down in the face of outrage within his own ranks. Paterson’s constituency, which had been a Tory stronghold for decades, lost the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats in the by-election.
The affair surrounding numerous parties at the seat of government during the Corona lockdown led to an internal party vote of no confidence in Johnson in June. The prime minister survived the vote. In the end, 32 votes were missing to force Johnson to resign. Johnson apologized several times for the illegal parties, but refused to resign.
Johnson was fined for attending one of the celebrations – becoming the first sitting British Prime Minister to be fined for breaking the law. In her investigative report on the Partygate affair, senior official Sue Gray drew a devastating conclusion: she concluded that the government leadership was responsible for the misconduct during the corona lockdown. Gray criticized multiple rule violations and “excessive alcohol consumption” at the seat of government.
In early July, Tories Deputy Secretary of Parliament Chris Pincher resigned after sexually harassing two men. It became known that there had been allegations against him in the past. A government spokesman initially denied that Johnson knew about the old allegations against Pincher. According to a senior former official, Johnson had already been informed of a corresponding incident in 2019. The prime minister was then accused of lying. Johnson said, in retrospect, Pincher’s appointment was a mistake.
In mid-May, a conservative member of parliament was temporarily arrested on suspicion of rape. Also in May, a former Tory MP was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for sexually abusing a minor. At the end of April, a conservative MP resigned after watching porn videos on his cell phone in parliament.
Christian Olearius, co-owner of the Warburg Bank, has been charged with serious tax evasion, among other things. He was one of the protagonists in the Hamburg scandal about cum-ex deals. At the time, the mayor of Hamburg probably tried to help him, too, Olaf Scholz.
Airport chaos in Germany: NRW, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have started the summer holidays – and are finally ringing in the chaos at the airports. Some workers are even going on warning strikes. But not only German airports are sinking into chaos. All important information in the news ticker.
A state of emergency was declared in five regions of Italy. The reason is a persistent and extreme drought due to a rarely experienced lack of water. The drought is particularly extreme in the north of the country and around the Po River.
