Early last week a call came into the office of a senior cabinet minister from one of Boris Johnson’s team at Downing Street. No 10 was frantically lodging requests across departments for members of the government to go on the media the following morning to defend the prime minister – and face the inevitable barrage of near-impossible questions about “partygate”.
Texts were exchanged. Agonised faces were pulled. Would it be a good idea? What was to be gained for the minister concerned? Was it just a hospital pass that required a decent excuse? In the end, a judg ment was reached by the minister’s closest officials. “We have to do it, don’t we?” one said. “If we say no, it will be a declaration of fucking war.”
Ministers and their staff, as well as Tory MPs, have been making such difficult calculations for weeks now. Should they go out, publicly, in support of Johnson’s campaign to save his premiership? Or should they steer clear and shield themselves from association with their embattled leader’s efforts to justify what a large section of the public has concluded is completely unjustifiable breaking of Covid rules at the heart of power?
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