Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Boris Johnson

  • How Johnson Lost the Confidence of Tory Lawmakers

    Boris Johnson
    British prime minister Boris Johnson leads his Latvian counterpart, Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš, up the stairs of 10 Downing Street in London, England, March 14 (Valsts kanceleja)

    At least 54 British Conservatives want Boris Johnson to go. That was the minimum — 15 percent of lawmakers — needed to trigger a vote of confidence. The prime minister needs to convince a majority of 180 of his colleagues to keep him in office. The vote will be held tonight.

    The immediate cause of the rebellion is an investigation that found Johnson broke COVID-19 lockdown rules by attending and hosting multiple parties and other social events in 10 Downing Street, his London residence, through 2020 and 2021.

    Other reasons given by Johnson’s internal critics to push him out are: raising taxes on energy companies, when Conservatives are supposed to be the party of low taxes; sending asylum seekers to Rwanda while their applications are being processed in the UK; and threatening to pull out of an agreement with the EU that has kept the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open.

    Not only did the prime minister break the rules; he repeatedly breaks his word. (more…)

  • Pressure Mounts on Boris Johnson to Resign

    Boris Johnson
    British prime minister Boris Johnson chairs a cabinet meeting in London, England, September 30, 2020 (10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons)

    Boris Johnson may be remembered as the prime minister of Brexit and COVID parties.

    British media have revealed a series of parties were held at the prime minister’s residence when the rest of the United Kingdom was in pandemic lockdown. Each week seems to bring fresh allegations and criticism. Three of Johnson’s predecessors have reprimanded him. Conservative backbenchers and party donors have urged him to step down. Labour has taken a 7- to 10-point lead in the polls. Yet Johnson continues in office.

    The government first tried to defend the parties with what have been called “brazen” and “unbelievable” excuses. One involving wine, cheese and loud music was called a “work event”. A birthday party was defended as the prime minister being “ambushed by a cake.” (more…)

  • Boris Johnson’s Blue Wall Starts to Crack

    Boris Johnson Angela Merkel
    British prime minister Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel pose for photos at the G7 in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, June 11 (10 Downing Street/Simon Dawson)

    British Conservatives woke up Friday morning to the news that a once-safe seat in Parliament was no longer blue.

    Liberal Democrat Sarah Green overturned a majority of 16,000 in Chesham and Amersham, bordering the London Green Belt, with a remarkable 25-point swing away from the Conservatives. It is one of the largest swings away from the ruling party since the early 1990s, when Tony Blair launched New Labour.

    Extrapolating from a by-election is risky. Britain has had many by-elections which were heralded as the dawning of a new political era that never arrived. But a center-right party losing the suburbs after lurching to the populist right sounds like a familiar story. (more…)

  • Johnson Puts British Diplomacy, Internal Relations at Risk

    Boris Johnson
    British prime minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London, England, January 22 (10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons)

    British prime minister Boris Johnson has been accused of “legislative hooliganism” and running a “rogue state” for bringing forth legislation that would breach international law.

    The Internal Market Bill, which Johnson’s government is planning to enact in order to establish the legal framework for Britain’s internal market following the end of the Brexit transition period, would contravene the withdrawal agreement Britain has negotiated with the EU.

    The withdrawal agreement subjects Northern Ireland to EU rules on exports and state aid in order to avoid the need for a border with the Republic of Ireland. The open border has helped keep the peace between Catholics and Protestants in the region for twenty years.

    The Internal Market Bill gives UK ministers the power to opt out of those rules. (more…)

  • Johnson Accepts Brexit Deal Britain Rejected Two Years Ago

    Boris Johnson
    British prime minister Boris Johnson listens to a reporter’s question in Brussels, October 17 (European Commission)

    After two years of drama, British prime minister Boris Johnson has accepted the Brexit deal the EU offered all along.

    Rather than keeping the whole of the United Kingdom in a customs union with the EU to avoid an economic border between the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Johnson has agreed to keep only Northern Ireland in such a customs arrangement.

    This is unacceptable to Johnson’s right-wing allies in Northern Ireland, meaning he will need support from opposition parties to get the deal through Parliament. (Johnson’s Conservatives do not have a majority.) Labour now officially argues for a second referendum. The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party are opposed to Brexit altogether. No wonder European leaders, meeting in Brussels on Thursday, are skeptical Johnson can get this done. (more…)

  • Even Parliament Must Make Way for Brexit

    Elizabeth Tower London England
    Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, February 23, 2017 (Unsplash/Kate Krivanec)

    To its supporters, Brexit is all that matters. If it means plunging the country into deep uncertainty, undermining the public’s trust in institutions, trashing Britain’s alliances, causing Northern Ireland and Scotland to leave the United Kingdom, even destroying the Conservative Party — so be it.

    The latest victim of this obsession is parliamentary democracy.

    In the battle between popular and parliamentary sovereignty, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sided with the former and suspended Parliament, so it will have almost no time to prevent the United Kingdom from crashing out of the European Union without an exit agreement. (more…)

  • Election of Britain’s Next Prime Minister Feels a Little Ridiculous

    Theresa May Donald Trump
    British prime minister Theresa May speaks with American president Donald Trump the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC, January 27, 2017 (10 Downing Street/Jay Allen)

    The contest to succeed Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and prime minister of the UK is about halfway through. A field of more than two dozen candidates has been whittled down to two by parliamentarians. The final contenders are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.

    The entire thing has an air of ridicule to it. Many in the country have watched the televised debates between the candidates setting out their policies on not just Brexit but controversial domestic issues, such as social care and high-speed rail. But out of millions, only 150 to 160,000 party members have a vote.

    On top of this, to spend the better half of two months choosing a new leader, who will be the new prime minister by default, when the country faces perhaps its greatest crisis in half a century seems rather like rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship — futile and even a little insulting to those who suspect more could have been done with the six-month Brexit extension granted by the EU in April. (more…)

  • Boris Johnson and the Brexit Ultras Deserve Each Other

    Boris Johnson
    British foreign secretary Boris Johnson answers questions from reporters at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, June 18, 2018 (UN/Jean-Marc Ferré)

    When Boris Johnson’s last bid for the Conservative Party’s leadership failed, I argued here that the former mayor of London’s many flipflops had finally caught up with him.

    “You can only change your mind so many times before people start to see you for the political opportunist you are,” I wrote.

    My mistake was to think the British right cares about principle and integrity. (more…)

  • Johnson Warns Brexit Delay Will Benefit Labour

    Boris Johnson has finally put his head above the parapet and launched his bid to become Britain’s next prime minister.

    At a well-orchestrated event on Wednesday, which saw the former foreign secretary joined by a number of Conservative Party heavyweights, Johnson warned that his party faces an existential crisis if it fails to deliver Brexit.

    “Delay means defeat, delay means Corbyn,” he warned.

    Britain is due to leave the EU on October 31. (more…)

  • Theresa May Loses Pro-Brexit Ministers

    Theresa May
    British prime minister Theresa May and her husband, Philip, arrive in Hamburg, Germany for the G20 summit, July 6, 2017 (Bundesregierung)
    • Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have resigned from Theresa May’s government.
    • Both opposed her Brexit strategy of seeking as close as trade relationship with the EU as possible without accepting free movement of EU nationals. (more…)

  • Boris Johnson Makes One More Bid for Relevance

    When Theresa May named Boris Johnson foreign secretary last year, she wisely took the Brexit and international-trade portfolios away from him. This way, she contained the damage the buffoonish Johnson could do to both British foreign policy and her premiership.

    But the former mayor of London’s appetite for higher office and publicity is never satisfied.

    This week, he rattled Conservatives with a long opinion piece in The Telegraph (a right-wing newspaper he used to work for) that can only be read as a challenge to May. (more…)

  • Johnson Stands Down as Five Vie for David Cameron’s Job

    • Michael Gove, the British justice secretary, has forced Boris Johnson out of the race to succeed David Cameron by launching his own bid for the Conservative Party leadership.
    • Theresa May, the home secretary, has formally declared her candidacy as well. She is seen as the best candidate to reunite the party in the wake of a divisive EU referendum campaign.
    • The other candidates are Stephen Crabb, a “Cameroon” on the left of the party, and Euroskeptics Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom. (more…)

  • British Parties Seek New Leaders After Vote to Leave EU

    Whitehall London England
    View of the Houses of Parliament from Whitehall in London, England (Shutterstock/Alan Copson)
    • The contest to replace David Cameron as Conservative Party leader and prime minister starts today.
    • Stephen Crabb, the up-and-coming work and pensions secretary, has declared he will stand. So have John Baron and Liam Fox, two Euroskeptics.
    • Boris Johnson and Theresa May are expected to enter the contest today. (more…)

  • London Mayor Rises as Rival to Britain’s Cameron

    In the aftermath of what can be said to have been a resounding success for the city of London, hosting the Olympic Games for a third time, there has been rampant speculation that Mayor Boris Johnson may seek the Conservative Party leadership and, with it, the premiership.

    Johnson’s rise in the party coincides with the resurgence of the Tory right. Boris is liked by this segment of the party for his stance on cutting the top income tax rate to 40 percent, his support for state grammar schools and his repeated calls that Britain ought to seriously rethinking its relationship with the European Union. (more…)