Extortion allegations break brief truce for Boris Johnson

London, Jan 20 (EFE).- There is hardly any truce for the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who, after yesterday aborting an attempted rebellion in his ranks, was accused this Thursday by one of his own deputies of “extorting and intimidating “to the dissidents who ask for his head.

The latest time bomb in the Downing Street party scandal (the so-called “Partygate”) was planted by the wayward William Wragg, chairman of the parliamentary committee for Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs, in a speech in which he asked his colleagues to inform the Police of any illicit pressure.

“In recent days several members of Parliament have come under pressure and intimidation from members of the government for their declared or alleged desire to (ask for) a vote of confidence in the prime minister’s leadership,” he said.

For this young deputy (34 years old), but at the head of an important commission, some of this pressure could amount to blackmail, so those who have suffered it should bring it to the attention of the Police and the President of the House of Representatives. common.

The complaint must be contextualized: Wragg is one of the few “Tory” deputies who have dared to call for Johnson’s resignation in public and represents the outpost of the internal opposition to the Prime Minister.

However, the gravity of the accusation was such that it caused a new earthquake around Johnson’s leadership.

Wragg’s claim was first supported by another MP, Christian Wakeford, who said that parliamentary discipliners in the ‘Tory’ group had threatened him with withdrawing funding for a new school in his constituency in the north of England if he did not silenced his criticism.

Wakeford’s word has been called into question by the Conservatives after yesterday he became, after going over to Labor, the first deputy turncoat of this legislature.

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“LOOKS LIKE CHECK MATE”

For many co-religionists of the “premier”, the revelations of the press about the parties that were held in Downing Street during the pandemic -in which Johnson participated on at least one occasion- have been the straw that overflows the camel’s back, until point that they no longer wonder if Johnson will fall, but when.

In the war of factions that is usually the Conservative Party, one of the sharpest tongues is that of the leader of the Europhobic sector, Steve Baker, who today joined the chorus that already considers Johnson to be written off.

“We didn’t choose Boris Johnson for his meticulous understanding of tedious rules, but this is appalling and people are rightly furious. I’m afraid it looks like checkmate, but we’ll see if he can be saved,” he told the BBC.

A Johnson besieged by “friendly fire” again submitted this Thursday to the questions of a British journalist, to emphasize that “he has not seen any proof” that there has been extortion on the rebels.

Like the members of his Executive, he gasped for air by asking to wait for the conclusion of the report that senior official Sue Gray is preparing on possible infractions of the anticovid rules in her official residence.

According to a journalist from the channel “ITV”, Gray has been able to access an email in which Johnson’s personal secretary, Martin Reynolds, was warned that the party he organized on May 20, 2020 in Downing Street violated the restrictions social.

That email would be the “smoking gun,” proof that Johnson knew, and consented, to the rules being broken.

But it is not easy to bring down a sitting prime minister. The twenty neophyte deputies who yesterday tried to carry out an internal rebellion to reach the 54 letters – 15% of the conservative deputies – that are necessary to call a motion of internal confidence among the “tories” and who stayed Halfway.

The failure of that initiative gave Johnson a break, but no one dares to predict his future beyond Gray’s long-awaited report, which should be released next week.

Henry Rubio

(c) EFE Agency

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