Politics is all about context. The first fines are arriving from the Metropolitan Police for the Downing Street lockdown revellers, but the backdrop has been transformed since the Partygate scandal first broke. The Ukraine crisis is a stark reminder of the very serious dangers in the world beyond Westminster. Boris Johnson, who only a few weeks ago was facing a leadership crisis, has been praised by President Zelensky as one of his country’s staunchest allies.
When global leaders are being forced to confront the threat of chemical or even nuclear warfare, while energy prices spiral out of control, it seems trivial to worry about drinks on the terrace or late-night festivities in No 10. The suitcases of wine, installation of a special fridge and debates about whether “BYOB” means “Bring Your Own Booze” or “Bring Your Own Bottle” feel like light relief in comparison to the threat of a third world war.
In the House of Commons, the atmosphere has changed. Some Conservative MPs have already withdrawn their letters of no confidence in the prime minister. The air has gone out of the balloon of a leadership challenge, although it could inflate pretty quickly again if backbenchers start to sense a risk to their own parliamentary seats after the May local elections.
But the fact that 20 fixed penalty notices have been issued by the police is still a hugely significant moment. It has now been officially confirmed that the law was broken at the very top of government when the rest of the country was making enormous sacrifices as a result of the Covid restrictions.
At a time of exceptional national crisis, the prime minister and his team behaved as if there was one rule for them and another for the rest of us. Whether or not Johnson himself is issued with a fine, he presided over a culture of dishonesty, incompetence or arrogance in Downing Street (and possibly all three) that led to multiple breaches of the laws that his own government had introduced.
What is more, the prime minister tried to cover it up, insisting repeatedly—including in the House of Commons—that there were no parties. On 8th December he told Keir Starmer: “I have been repeatedly assured that the rules were not broken. I repeat that I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken.” It is now clear that Johnson misled MPs.
The prime minister has always said whatever it takes to “get away with it,” but honesty matters, particularly when the stakes are so high. Of course, the threat posed by Vladimir Putin is far more serious than the rule-breaking in No 10, but the violent despotism of the Russian president is also a reminder that liberal democracy depends on the truth.
Putin’s power depends on spreading fake news and propaganda in Russia while using Twitter bots to disseminate lies around the world. It took enormous courage for the television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova to rush onto the set of the government-controlled Russian Channel One to shout “stop the war” and hold up a sign saying “They’re lying to you.” But she knows the importance of the truth, on both large questions and small. That is why the controversy around the lockdown parties—and whether or not the prime minister lied about them—is more important than it may seem.
The polling guru John Curtice told the World at One that the Ukraine crisis could “work both ways” for how the prime minister is judged over Partygate. “You can say, ‘We’ve got a major geo-strategic crisis, we shouldn’t be trying to change the ship of state,’” he said. “The other argument is: ‘If we are going to criticise President Putin for breaking international law and sometimes being seemingly rather economical with the truth, it’s rather difficult to be led by a prime minister for whom similar—if not necessarily quite so serious—allegations could also be made.’”
For now at least, the anger has dissipated among MPs, but the public may be less forgiving.
In several focus groups conducted for the campaigning organisation More in Common over the last few weeks, voters made clear that they were still furious about the Downing Street parties. “It’s no longer one of the top two or three things people bring up but when they get onto it the anger is still there,” says Luke Tryl, the UK director of the charity organisation. “Brand Boris has taken a hit, but people don’t think there’s anyone else. The shine has definitely come off Rishi Sunak.”
