Another week of Chaos in Downing Street

Yet another week where the Prime Minister has floundered, and the Country has struggled.

The week started with a Tory former chief whip urging Johnson to withdraw an insinuation about the Labour leader Starmer refusing to prosecute the serial sex offender Jimmy Savile and saw scenes where Starmer was accosted outside Parliament.

The UK Statistics Authority last week officially rebuked Boris Johnson and Priti Patel for misleadingly claiming that crime had fallen, following a letter of complaint by Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng then claimed this weekend that fraud isn't something people experience in their day-to-day lives.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats show there were 100,393 fraud offences referred to the police in London last year, 8,957 fraud offences in Surrey which is home to Kwasi Kwarteng's constituency of Spelthorne, and 11,829 fraud offences in Essex which includes Priti Patel's seat of Witham.

Boris Johnson refused to agree to correct the record, after being challenged to by Ed Davey at PMQs on Wednesday.

Sir John Major's keynote speech at the Institute for Government on Thursday was damning, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

"This damning criticism should act as a wake-up call to every Conservative MP who is sitting on their hands while Boris Johnson trashes the values that underpin our democracy.

"If Conservative backbenchers show the same bravery that John Major has shown, our country could finally move on from Boris Johnson and his lies."

Later that day Johnson's own office saw an unexpected resignation as his top policy aide quit over his false claim that the leader of the Labour opposition Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.

The PM made the remark on Monday as he came under attack over Sue Gray's report on Downing Street parties. Not to mention finally Cressida Dick resigned over a loss of confidence from the public in her leadership and the Met Police.

The Brexit saga rumbles on, with new Brexit minister, Rees Mogg farcically writing to the Sun readers looking for opportunities and solutions - a mere six years too late in my opinion, whilst a new report by a cross-party group of MPs published this week highlighted that Brexit is damaging British trade and costing businesses billions in red tape.

Conservatives' slavish adherence to damaging ideology trumps common sense it seems in 21st Century Britain.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair Dame Meg Hillier MP said on Wednesday that the only detectable impact of Brexit so far had been a "clear increase in costs, paperwork and border delays", hardly worth wasting billions for really The latest report on Brexit is found here.

Finally, even Tory MPs are warning that Boris Johnson must not fight to stay on as prime minister if he is fined by police over Downing Street parties.

The news comes after exclusive polling for The Independent showed the Conservatives face a brutal backlash from voters - a record 75 per cent think Johnson should go if he is found guilty of breaking Covid rules, but of course he denies he'll go.

It seems Johnson isn't quite as Teflon as he believed.

All that remains to wonder this week is will Southwest Wiltshire's current MP Murrison, a self-admitted ardent Johnson fan and himself a committed Brexiter, continue to support a potentially law breaking Prime Minister?

... Time will tell.
(Keep the popcorn handy as the farce of British Government rolls on)

Also published on LibDemVoice Yet more chaos in Downing Street (libdemvoice.org)