Can the Conservative Party Survive Boris Johnson?
| DOI | 10.1177/20419058221091632 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Richard Hayton |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
18 POLITICAL INSIGHT • APRIL 2022
By the time you read this Boris
Johnson may no longer be Prime
Minister. The ‘partygate’ scandal
that has engulfed his premiership
and led to a police investigation into a series
of alleged breaches of COVID lockdown
rules, has already led to multiple departures
from Downing Street. Press Secretary Allegra
Stratton resigned in December, when a video
emerged of a mock press conference at which
she was asked to respond to reports of a
Christmas party in Number 10 and joked that
‘this ctional party was a business meeting,
and it was not socially distanced’. A further
ve civil servants, including Johnson’s Chief
of Sta, Principal Private Secretary, and Head
of Policy resigned in February. More than a
dozen Conservative MPs publicly called for the
Prime Minister to resign, including the leader
of the Scottish Conservative Party, Douglas
Ross. With others reported to have submitted
letters of no condence to the Chairman of
the 1922 Committee, the year began with
building speculation that Johnson could soon
face a ballot on the future of his leadership of
the party.
Should Johnson lose a vote of no
condence, or be forced to resign by some
other means, it would be an extraordinary and
humiliating end for a leader who less than
three years ago delivered the Conservatives
their largest majority since Thatcher’s third
General Election victory in 1987. Even if he
manages to cling on to power, Johnson has
suered such reputational damage that the
possibility of him being able to fully recover
his authority either with his party or with
the country seems remote. On one level
this prompts the question: how were things
allowed to go so badly wrong at the heart of
Can the Conservative Party
Survive Boris Johnson?
Boris Johnson was widely seen as the leader who could transform
the Conservatives’ electoral appeal. Instead, writes Richard Hayton,
Johnson’s time in office has left the Tories facing existential questions
about the party’s direction – and even its future.
government in the midst of the pandemic? On
another, it also leads us to ask to what extent
is the current Conservative crisis one merely
of leadership, or a more far-reaching crisis of
conservatism as it seeks to dene itself for the
post-Brexit era? Can the Conservatives resolve
their current diculties by ejecting their leader
and replacing him with a new gure untainted
by the partygate scandal? And what might the
end of Johnson’s premiership mean for the
future of Conservative politics?
Existential crisis
The fact that Johnson was chosen by the
Conservatives as their leader at all was
symptomatic of the existential crisis facing
the party at the time. In 2019, desperate to
nd a way through the impasse over Brexit,
Conservative MPs – some against their own
better judgement – put aside concerns over
Johnson’s personality to lend their support
to the candidate who appeared best able to
‘get Brexit done’. Failure to do so threatened
the destruction of the party and raised the
real prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming
Prime Minister. His defeated rival, Rory Stewart,
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Political Insight April 2022 BU.indd 18Political Insight April 2022 BU.indd 18 01/03/2022 10:2801/03/2022 10:28
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