The new agreement for Northern Ireland that the Government of Rishi Sunak has agreed with the EU is “unacceptable”, “does not resolve the pending issues” and “violates” the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. His economic policy, which includes raising corporate tax, is “counterproductive” and betrays his own values. These words are not from opposition politicians, but from former British ruling party prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who remain MPs.
The ‘Windsor framework’: what the new deal on Northern Ireland after Brexit means for the UK and the EU
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Both were forced to resign by their own party. In Johnson’s case, it was the lack of condemnation of a senior official accused of sexual harassment that added to months of revelations and a critical report on parties and other events in Downing Street that broke the rules of confinement during the pandemic. Truss only lasted a few weeks in office after insisting that he would lower taxes, and the panicked reaction of the markets forced the Bank of England to intervene to save pension funds.
Johnson and Truss broke records for unpopularity and have helped give Labor an edge in the polls on the general elections that is around 20 points for months. But that has not discouraged them from leading groups of discontents tories against Sunak. Some complain that the party will pay for it soon.
“Leaders who deny any guilt in their own downfall have a corrosive effect on their party and the entire electorate,” wrote William Hague, former leader of the Conservatives, in an article in Times titled “Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have to admit failure”.
I vote against the Windsor framework
This Wednesday, Sunak found himself in front of his two exwho joined the tories more to the right and the ultra-unionist party of Northern Ireland (the DUP) to vote against the “Windsor framework” that tries to soften the effects of Brexit.
The House of Commons approved by a comfortable majority (515 against 29) the first legislative text of the new agreement, which means that Northern Ireland accepts the jurisprudence of the EU to continue being in the single market and thus avoid the hard border on the island of Ireland, but at the same time having a “brake” on future community legislation that the Parliament of Northern Ireland can invoke. The number of tories rebels who voted against was less than expected (22 deputies in a group of 355, although another 48 conservatives abstained or absent). Johnson and Truss were among those 22 supporters of the toughest Brexiter even if it jeopardized the 1998 Good Friday peace deal in Northern Ireland.
Steve Baker, secretary of state for Northern Ireland in the Sunak government, said on Wednesday that Johnson “you risk looking like a Nigel Farage of the ‘everything to 100’”in reference to the former leader of the Brexit party.
‘Partygate’
Sunak, who was finance minister under Johnson and precipitated his downfall by resigning in protest, vowed to bring “integrity and accountability” to the post. His intention was to turn the page on the pandemic party scandal, but Johnson continues to make headlines, especially now that he is in the middle of a public fight to rehabilitate his image and avoid a sanction from the House of Commons that could cost the seat
This Wednesday he testified before the commission investigating whether he knowingly lied to Parliament when he said he thought the celebrations and other events in Downing Street complied with the social distancing health rules established by his own government. Johnson assures that his advisers had informed him that all the meetings in which he was not complying with the rules, in some cases using exceptions for meetings at work, and that he personally did not at any time have the feeling of be violating the rules (contrary to what the police and an official investigation later established).
At his impromptu birthday celebration on June 19, 2021, for example, Johnson said it didn’t feel like a birthday because “there was no cake” and “nobody sang the happy birthday”. In the three and a half hour session before the Commons, he took the opportunity to say that if he had broken the rules, it would also have been “obvious” to others, “including the current prime minister”, who was on the birthday and was fined for it. . Johnson highlighted Sunak’s presence several times.
The official report detailing the festivities was published last year and the police handed out their fines, but what is to be decided now is whether Johnson willfully or negligently lied before Parliament, a serious offense in Britain. If Johnson is suspended for 10 days or more, this may force an election for his seat.
The parliamentary committee is expected to publish its report in the coming weeks. Johnson’s defense in this process has already cost the taxpayer over 220,000 pounds (about 250,000 euros) to pay the lawyer who accompanies him.
The return of Truss
Truss has been more discreet than Johnson. After only 49 days in the post of prime minister, she was absent for a few weeks from Parliament, traveled the United States and avoided giving interviews. But in February she wrote a 4,000-word article in the conservative daily Sunday Telegraph defending his failed tax cut plan and gave an interview to the weekly The Spectator. Since then, he has mobilized tories critical of Sunak and his budget.
His vote in the case of Northern Ireland is especially surprising since Truss was against Brexit in the referendum and was not until now in favor of a complete break with the EU.
The fight that Truss has with Sunak, his old rival in the party leadership race, is different from that of Johnson, who flirts with running again if local elections in May confirm the debacle of the Conservatives.
“Although both prime ministers go after Sunak, they do it in different ways. Johnson is a prince in exile. It is no secret that he believes his time at Downing Street was cruelly interrupted.” wrote Katy Balls, the political editor for The Spectator. “Truss, meanwhile, doesn’t seem like he wants to go back to Downing Street (and in any case he’s ruled it out). But he is a problem for Sunak because his ideas – low taxes, economic growth – are still embraced by a significant part of the party”.
The article accompanied a cover titled “The Haunting”, something like “the apparition”, which is usually applied to ghosts. In this case, the specters of Charles Dickens’s “Christmas Past” were the “Prime Ministers Past”.
