TheEconomistApril16th 2022 47
Britain→Alsointhissection
48 Prisonsinthewrongplaces
49 Bagehot:ThemightyMartinLewisTogether at last
Britain, net approval rating , %Source:YouGov40200-20-40-60
2020 21 22Rishi SunakBoris JohnsonPartygateWaiting for Boris
The Conservative Party cannot move forward with its current leader.
But it cannot face life without him“N
othing happens, nobody comes,
nobody goes, it’s awful!” Estragon, a
character in Samuel Beckett’s play “Wait
ing for Godot”, is not a Conservative mp.
But he has the same view of the world.
On April 12th Boris Johnson was fined
for attending an illegal birthday party in
the summer of 2020, at a time when
Britons were banned from seeing loved
ones indoors. He thereby became the first
prime minister to be found to have broken
a law in office—a law introduced shortly
before by his own government. Snap polls
showed a majority of voters want him to
step down. But, with the Conservative Par
ty, excuses can always be found for inac
tion. The mps who decide Mr Johnson’s fate
increasingly resemble characters in Beck
ett’s play, in which action is frequently
promised but usually delayed.
Some of their justifications for inaction
are bureaucratic. At the start of the year,
mps promised to act against Mr Johnson,
but only once an internal government re
port had been published. When the report
by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant and eth
ics chief, appeared in an abridged form, thetrigger changed. mps would move against
their leader only if the police took action
against him. Now that the police have
played their part, the excuses have become
procedural: parliament is in recess and the
corridors of power are empty. Conservative
WhatsApp chats are alive but indecisive.
Voters may jolt them. Local elections
are due at the start of May. But even if voters deliver a slap to the Conservative gov
ernment, more excuses could be forth
coming. Few people vote in local elections,
runs one readymade line of defence for Mr
Johnson. Those who do tend to be politi
cally engaged, unlike the disgruntled
workingclass voters whom Mr Johnson
managed to drag over to the Conservatives
for the first time in 2019. Better to wait for a
general election for a true test.
The war in Ukraine provides yet anoth
er excuse. The prime minister has handled
the invasion with uncharacteristic skill.
Moving against him now would seem si
multaneously unserious and churlish. It
may give succour to Vladimir Putin, mps
argue. That the same happened in the sec
ond world war, when Tory mps forced Nev
ille Chamberlain to resign, makes no odds
to Conservative lawmakers who seem to
prefer their Beckettian hell.
Hardly any mps are happy. But Mr John
son is all they have. To move against him is
to move against a man who, in just a few
months in 2019, took them from the worst
result in their history in the European elec
tions (9% of the vote) to their largest ma
jority in Parliament since Margaret
Thatcher (and 44% of the vote). mps cling
to Mr Johnson like shipwreck survivors
who continue to wear life jackets even after
they are safe on land. Mr Johnson does not
have a decent political operation, counsels
one former cabinet minister. But nor do
any of the alternatives. The likely option is
more waiting.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the ex— Read more at: Economist.com/Britain