The very disappointing prime minister of the UK announced today that he’s ending his coronavirus restrictions a week early as he tries to stop a vote of no confidence in the parliament:
“From tomorrow we will no longer require face masks in classrooms and the Department for Education will shortly remove national guidance on their use in communal areas.” pic.twitter.com/Sg6nfJFH9h
— Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa) January 19, 2022
Here’s more:
DYNUZ – Prime Minister Boris Johnson, fighting for his political life, said on Wednesday that he would lift almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England, hoping to stanch a devastating loss of support over charges that he lied about parties in Downing Street during lockdowns.
Mr. Johnson’s announcement during a heated appearance in Parliament was a significant gamble by a besieged leader who is almost out of moves. It appeared to be an effort not just to change the subject but also to win over restive Conservative lawmakers, nearly 100 of whom rebelled against him when he imposed the measures last month.
But as the prime minister faced yet another chorus of calls to resign, and after news that one Conservative legislator had defected to the opposition Labour Party, the announcement did little to dispel the furor over the parties. The stream of disclosures about illicit social gatherings have engulfed Mr. Johnson’s government and emboldened mutinous lawmakers to push for a no-confidence vote that could topple him.
Whether the lawmakers reach the threshold of 54 letters necessary to prompt a vote is now the all-consuming question in Westminster. Even if Mr. Johnson were to survive — which would require winning a simple majority of Conservative lawmakers — it would most likely cripple his leadership.
In easing Covid restrictions a week before they were scheduled to expire, Mr. Johnson said that he was trying to restore England’s “ancient liberties,” a reference to the country’s deep-rooted tradition of individual freedoms.
I’m sure there’s more to it, but this article suggests that much of this is about Johnson lying to parliament about his ‘work meeting’ where he and his staffers were caught drinking in the garden while everyone else was locked down for fear of spreading COVID in 2020:
Mr. Johnson has struggled to sustain his argument that he did not mislead Parliament — an offense that could lead to a prime minister’s resignation — on the grounds that he thought he was attending a work event when, in May 2020, he joined several dozen staff members drinking in the garden at the height of lockdown restrictions.
With polls showing that only a small minority of people believe that Mr. Johnson is telling the truth about the Downing Street parties, and with lawmakers fearing an electoral backlash, the pressure for a no-confidence vote is mounting. Because the process is secret, it is unclear how many lawmakers have sent letters calling for such an action.
So far, just seven lawmakers have said publicly that they have called for a vote and one of those was Mr. Wakeford. But on Wednesday, the BBC reported that a group of around 10 lawmakers who won their seats in Mr. Johnson’s landslide victory in 2019 had joined them. Many more have criticized him in public, and, in another significant setback to the prime minister, one senior Conservative lawmaker, David Davis, called on Mr. Johnson to quit, saying he had failed to take responsibility for his actions.
“In the name of God, go,” Mr. Davis said in Parliament, citing a quotation used famously in 1940 to urge the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, to resign.
It’ll be nice to see a politician being held accountable for a change, if it indeed happens. From this article, it sounds like he’s doomed but we’ll see if that comes to fruition.