Johnson’s relationship with the truth has once again dominated the news after it was revealed that the prime minister had been personally briefed on previous allegations of sexual harassment by now-disgraced former deputy Conservative leader Chris Pincher. Within hours, Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned from the Cabinet, followed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, unable to serve any longer under the man whose values and judgment he no longer respected. Number 10 had spent the past few days denying that Johnson was aware of “specific allegations” about Pincher. So several ministers were sent to hostile media interviews, armed by Johnson with incomplete or inaccurate versions of the truth. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” said one senior Tory official, surveying the dark scene around the cabinet table. Thérèse Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary tasked with the unenviable task of defending Johnson on Sunday, glared at the prime minister. Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, endured a torrid “media tour” on Tuesday, insisting that Johnson had not been informed of the allegations about Pincher, only to discover shortly afterwards that this was not the case. It is time that his cabinet colleagues recognized the terrible damage the Prime Minister is doing to the party, the government and the country Johnson later engaged in crisis talks with aides as rumors swirled of government resignations. “It’s a final moment,” said one former minister. “It is the combination of incompetence and dishonesty that people cannot enjoy.” Johnson, like many embattled prime ministers before him, took to the tea room of the House of Commons to indulge his depressed MPs, hoping to rally support. But during the day, support was receding. MPs said new letters were being drafted to be sent to senior Conservatives expressing a lack of confidence in Johnson. Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip last Thursday after admitting he “embarrassed” himself and others by getting drunk at a private members’ club in London. accused of groping two men. He was later expelled from the Conservative party. It was left to Michael Ellis, the Cabinet minister, to explain to MPs why Downing Street had repeatedly and wrongly insisted the prime minister had not received “specific allegations” about Pincher before she installed him as deputy leader in February. Ellis said Johnson “did not immediately recall” being told in 2019 that the Cabinet Office had investigated and confirmed an allegation of misconduct by Pincher, who was secretary of state at the time. He just remembered, the prime minister told the Downing Street press office. Johnson’s failure to recall the facts once again put his official spokesman, a public servant funded by taxpayers to provide accurate information, in a poor position. At the start of Tuesday’s regular briefing with Westminster reporters, the first question to Johnson’s spokesman was: “Are you going to tell the truth?” The spokesman said he would always seek to “provide the information available to me at the time of each meeting.” Johnson’s familiarity with the truth is already the subject of an inquiry by the Commons’ privilege committee, which is looking into whether the prime minister deliberately misled MPs about the partygate scandal. He has been fired twice for lying in his career: the first time he was fired as a reporter from The Times for fabricating a quote. In the second he was removed from the Conservative frontbench team for lying about an extramarital affair. Tory minister Lord Nicholas True read a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday defending the government’s commitment to high standards in public life, in which he could hardly believe what he was saying. Baroness Natalie Evans, leader of the Conservatives in the House of Lords, joined in the laughter. But for cabinet ministers, Johnson’s behavior is no laughing matter. William Wragg, chairman of the Tories’ public administration committee and a critic of Johnson, urged them to “consider their positions”. “It’s not a matter of systems but a political crisis,” he said. “This political crisis cannot be transferred.” Caroline Johnson, a Tory MP not known for attacking Johnson, asked in the Commons why the police had not investigated the allegations against Pincher in 2019, why he had not been sacked at the time and why Johnson subsequently gave him another job as deputy chief. Johnson’s admission that he knew about the allegations about Pincher followed an intervention by Lord Simon MacDonald, the former senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, who accused Downing Street of covering up the truth. Even among the prime minister’s supporters, McDonald’s blistering letter has sparked fears over whether it can survive. One Tory MP said: “Even among those most devoted to the Prime Minister, there is now a sense that he has gone and he must go now before he does any more damage to the party.” Some MPs have predicted that next week’s election for the 1922 Tory executive would result in a “clean sweep” for candidates seeking to remove the prime minister through a vote of no confidence. This would require a change in party rules. “I can’t see there being a ‘Boris loyalist cadre,’” said a former cabinet minister. “Who would be in it?” Tory MP Anthony Magnall, another critic of Johnson, said ministers should pull the plug on Johnson now. “It is time for cabinet colleagues to recognize the terrible damage the prime minister is doing to the party, the government and the country,” he said. The faces of those ministers sitting around the cabinet table suggested that some were already facing this dilemma. By Tuesday’s close, Johnson’s cabinet had dissolved, and with it, perhaps, his grip on power.
