Someone - thought to be the French foreign minister under Napoleon, Talleyrand - once claimed the Bourbon dynasty in France had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. The same could be said of Boris Johnson and his supporters who harbour dreams of a spectacular return to the pinnacle of British politics, or at least some of them did until last night. Any hopes of a return were dashed when Labour forced a vote in the House of Commons on a motion on the damning Privileges Committee report into Johnson’s misleading of parliament. It was accepted by 354 to seven.
Don't forget, the 2019 intake of Tory MPs were more or less hand-picked Johnson supporters so to see around 120 supporting the committee's report and rejecting him was perhaps a small sign of sanity returning to the party.
Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke against the motion but then abstained. Bill Cash both spoke and voted against along with Joy Morrisey, Karl McCartney, Adam Holloway, Heather Wheeler and Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher. Mr Fletcher gave a speech that plumbed to depths of mediocrity and really epitomised Tory's problem - they are mainly half-wits.
Note that's actually six since Sir Alan Campbell, Labour's chief whip, had to vote against since he was the one forcing a vote after the speaker at the end of the debate asked all those in favour to say 'aye' and all those opposed to say 'no' and he called out loudly "No!"
Lia Nici, Tory MP for Great Grimsby, said she couldn't see any evidence in the 100+ pages of the report showing Johnson had misled MPs. again showing the strange places to which tribalism can take you:
'I cannot see where the evidence is where Boris Johnson misled Parliament'Ex aide to Boris Johnson, Lia Nici is the first MP to openly defend him during a debate in the House of Commons https://t.co/FIYYWipQXX pic.twitter.com/FjLjtCOEnN— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) June 19, 2023
A few junior cabinet members voted to support the motion. These were Penny Mordaunt (leader of the House), Alex Chalk, Tom Tugenhadt, Chloe Smith, Victoria Prentis, Andrew Mitchell, Gillian Keegan and Simon Hart.
No high-profile ministers like Cleverly or Hunt bothered to turn up and we saw nothing of Sunak. They were conspicuously absent with Suank even refusing to tell reporters which way he would have voted if he had attended or spoken in the debate. So much for leadership.
They are all absolutely terrified of their own members, many of whom have a mindset like that of the delusional and utterly stupid David Campbell-Bannerman, who tweeted after noting that yesterday was Johnson's 59th birthday:
— David C Bannerman (@DCBMEP) June 19, 2023
The party is badly divided. The parliamentary party is estranged from ordinary members, free-market traders from high-spending one-nation Tories and Brexiteers from pro-EU supporters. And you have to admit that Johnson, now exposed as a serial liar by his colleagues, is at the heart of every split. They are going to be trounced next year, yet there is probably a majority of paying members who still think Johnson is an asset.
In Uxbridge recently one of the TV Channels was doing a vox pop and there are people in his constituency who genuinely think the charlatan has been hard done by!
Last night's vote was a humiliation for him and I don't see how he or the party could ever credibly see him as an MP ever again or as leader. It would be a massive act of self-harm but there are people in the party who would do it in a heartbeat.
They are ordinary men and women, like you and me. Friends, neighbours, work colleagues and even family members and this tells me just how deep Britain's problems are.
Johnson is finished as a Tory MP and leader.
