While most world leaders routinely broke their own COVID/lockdown rules, and just as usually lie to the public and to Congress, very few of them ever pay for these acts.
But that’s exactly what’s happening to former UK PM Boris Johnson. First, he lost his Premiership over his breaking the COVID lockdown rules in the ‘PartyGate’ scandal, and now he has had to resign as an MP for lying to Parliament about it.
“Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was unveiled Friday as the Daily Mail’s new star columnist — but attracted an immediate rebuke from a government watchdog to cap a tumultuous 48 hours.
A day after Johnson was given a blistering verdict by a committee of MPs investigating his “Partygate” denials, the right-leaning newspaper announced he would be writing a weekly column on Saturdays.
In a video posted by the Mail, former journalist Johnson said he was “thrilled” to contribute to “those illustrious pages”, vowing to deliver “completely unexpurgated stuff”.
[…] Johnson joked that he would cover politics only when “I absolutely have to” — and in a preview of the first column posted online, he dwelt on his never-ending battle to lost weight.”
Now, a UK Independent Advisory Board is coming for his new job as a star columnist at the ‘Daily Mail’.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), that verifies the compliance to rules governing outside appointments for former ministers, is saying that ‘it was informed half an hour before’ the Daily Mail announced on social media, a spokeswoman for the committee said.
They have written to Johnson for an explanation, and, although it cannot force the embattled politician out of the job, it’s nevertheless another one in a long row of bad news.
Many view his new position at the Mail as a chance to exert revenge upon his former Foreign Minister, current PM Rishi Sunak.
At the same time, prime minister Sunak seems to regard Johnson as irrelevant and no threat to his leadership.
The Guardian Reported:
“Close allies of Rishi Sunak on Saturday night dismissed Boris Johnson in contemptuous terms as ‘just an ex-MP’ of no particular importance, as the former prime minister’s political power base appeared to collapse at Westminster.
[…] The portrayal of Johnson risks infuriating supporters of the former prime minister, who say Sunak was complicit in many of the Covid-related controversies and rule-breaking investigated by the committee. Like Johnson, Sunak was fined by police over an event at Downing Street.
[…] With Labour well ahead in the opinion polls, Sunak and his strategists believe they can now draw a positive from the Johnson-related dramas and episodes of late.”
Meanwhile, many wonder whether Boris Johnson can still ‘do a Churchill’, and regain power after political disgrace. By no small amount of irony, all this unfolds as he prepares to celebrate his birthday on Monday with… a party.
The Times Reported:
“Boris Johnson will be at home in Oxfordshire on Monday to mark his 59th birthday while MPs are asked to approve the privileges committee report on the partygate scandal that led to the last rites being read over his political career.
There will be a small gathering with some family and close friends, not riotous festivities. ‘Ironically, he’s the last person to convene a party,’ a close friend said. ‘He doesn’t like them’.”
The post Boris Johnson Lost Premiership for Breaking His Own COVID Rules, Had To Resign for Lying to Parliament – Now an UK Advisory Committee Sounds off on His New ‘Daily Mail’ Job, as PM Sunak’s Friends Bash Him: ‘Just a Former MP’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.