‘Muriel,’ she said, ‘read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something about never sleeping in a bed?’
With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.
‘It says, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”,’ she announced finally.
Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so.
George Orwell, Animal Farm [Penguin Books, pp.60, 1960]
The furore over the Downing Street Covid parties has been extreme. For days the 24-hour news media has been ploughing the selfsame furrow, asking anyone they can find whether they think it is bad that the Prime Minister broke his own Covid rules. The responses have been predictably unenlightening. Few openly deny that his actions were wrong, although a cadre of Johnson’s supporters parry the question, asserting that he is sincerely sorry although he may not in fact be culpable after all, that he has an unimpeachable record and we shall have to wait for the results of the official inquiry rather than expect the Prime Minister to deliver up the details himself. The really interesting question, however, is why does the public suddenly care? For years we have greeted revelations of corruption, transparent lies and a raft of other offenses under Johnson’s government with perfect insouciance, but when it is proved he went briefly to a party while the rest of us were isolating – now we are angry, we bay like hounds! And yet – perhaps not. Even now somehow the mud refuses to stick. Jacob Rees-Mogg shrugs off criticism of the Prime Minister in a Newsnight interview and many still see Johnson as a beleaguered but lovable political outsider. This therefore seems an appropriate time to review some of Johnson’s more pungent misdemeanours, lest we forget and become lulled into a false sense of democracy.
Writing an account of political events from your bedroom always runs the risk of missing important details, but independent coverage from journalists in The Guardian, The Times, Private Eye and a slew of other papers have painted – cumulatively – an unequivocal and damning portrait of Johnson’s administration. These articles describe how he has exploited unenforceable rules in the ministerial code of conduct [1], allowing ministers to use underhand or illegal tactics to strengthen their hold on government and enrich their families and friends.
The primary objective of Johnson’s Conservative party is to consolidate power1 – a creed manifestly incompatible with democratic government. Three well-established requirements for democracy are a free press, freedom to demonstrate peacefully against the government and the existence of independent institutions that can evaluate government decisions and punish wrongdoing. Based on major news items published since 2019, I think there is evidence that all three are being eroded by Johnson’s government.
Johnson undermines regulation by infiltrating [2,3,4] or attempting to dismantle [5,6] impartial watchdogs. Official investigations are hampered or delayed [6, 7] and if the regulator finds a Conservative minister has breached the code of conduct then Johnson refuses to punish or even acknowledge wrongdoing. The result is that quality of government suffers but a “strong and stable” core of loyal politicians is retained.
Johnson has tried to silence peaceful protest by giving the police powers to shut down any demonstration deemed arbitrarily noisy or disruptive [8]. The BBC has been punished for its independence and journalistic rigour with funding cuts [9] and attempts to install Lord Moore as chairman – a Tory peer and former editor of the Daily Telegraph [10]. Besides Moore, two further Tory Press barons have been ennobled by Johnson for “services to journalism” [11]. The Conservative party has also manipulated video footage and used bogus social media profiles to try to damage the credibility of Labour [12,13].
Looking back on these events, I am reminded more of a banana republic than a democracy. In a Vanity Fair article from 2009, the late Christopher Hitchens observed that a chief characteristic of banana republics is that of “kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains… At all costs, therefore, the one principle that must not operate is the principle of accountability” [14]. I will explore this idea with a line-up of Johnson’s cabinet ministers.
Robert Jenrick served as Secretary of State for Housing between 2019 and 2021. In 2020, he was pressured by media tycoon Richard Desmond to grant planning permission for a £1bn housing development on the Westferry Printworks so that he could avoid paying a £45m local council tax levy that is used to support the London borough of Tower Hamlets – one of the poorest boroughs in the city. Tower Hamlets Council and the government’s own planning advisor had rejected the scheme, citing concerns about high housing density, scale and affordability [15]. Jenrick, however, approved the development and two weeks later the Conservative Party received a £12k quid pro quo from Desmond. In one text message sent to Jenrick before he granted planning permission, Desmond pushed for a quick decision because “we don’t want to give the Marxists load of doe [sic] for nothing.” Andrew Wood, former Conservative councillor for Tower Hamlets, resigned in disgust at the decision but Johnson quickly announced that he had “full confidence” in his Housing Minister. Though Jenrick’s lawyers tried to prevent the release of official documents pertaining to his decision, he was later forced to admit that his approval of Desmond’s development was illegal. The Westferry Printworks scandal remains a shining example of how rich “donors” can attend Tory fundraising events and buy favours from prominent MPs. Astonishingly, Jenrick still denies any bias in making his decision.
When Jenrick twice applied for planning permission to extend his house in Westminster, both applications were denied by planning officers because the extension would “harm the appearance of the building and the conservation area” [16]. Two months after Jenrick was elected MP, his wife submitted a third planning application. Again, planning officers recommended the extension be refused, but Tory councillor (and Jenrick’s neighbour) Steve Summers made an official request that the decision be passed over to a planning committee. In November 2014, the three Tory members of the committee voted to overturn the planning officer’s decision and grant permission for Jenrick to go ahead with his extension. The one Labour member of the committee voted against the proposed changes. Paul Church, one of the Tory planning committee members, complained later on Twitter about the culture in Westminster local government [17]: “I tried to stand up for the communities I was elected to represent against the dominance of property developers & their agents, patronage & power in Westminster, but I was bullied, silenced & threatened by their powerful allies.”
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care between 2018 and 2021, oversaw the UK’s Covid response and was widely criticized for awarding billions of pounds in PPE contracts to companies with political ties to the Conservative party. A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) in November 2020 found that 58% of Covid PPE contracts were awarded without being put out to tender, while a sample of these contracts revealed that several had been passed with no record of why the decision was taken or if there were any conflicts of interest. In some cases, a person was simply phoned and offered a contract without a shortlist of alternative candidates being drawn up or formal interviews taking place. According to the NAO, the government was not clear or “timely” in its release of information [7]. Many of the companies employed by the government were found to have no experience of anything – let alone PPE procurement – having lain dormant for years before reanimating, phoenix-like, during the pandemic. One can picture the oligarchs nodding in happy recognition.
Hancock also promoted friends and lovers to top positions in government, including Baroness Dido Harding (a Tory peer, wife of a Tory MP and Hancock’s tennis partner) and Gina Coladangelo (director and major shareholder in lobbying firm Luther Pendragon, with whom he was later found to be having an affair). Both women were afforded significant influence over the running of the NHS and there have been questions about their qualification for each role. Harding was ultimately responsible for the UK Test and Trace system that was supposed to track the progress of infection and help prevent its spread. The £37bn scheme2, heavily reliant on expensive private consultants and unskilled temporary staff, was designed to prevent a second lockdown [18]. The UK has since gone through two further lockdowns and neither the SAGE panel, nor an all-party public accounts committee, have been able to find any evidence of a measurable impact on the pandemic. I will just take a moment to allow the magnitude of that statement to sink in… In the words of Nick Macpherson, a former Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, the Test and Trace system represents “the most wasteful and inept public spending programme of all time” [19]. Hancock enjoyed Johnson’s favour throughout his tenure as Health Secretary, only being sacked was when he was caught in an extra-marital embrace with Coladangelo on Westminster CCTV.
Priti Patel has served as Home Secretary since 2019. In 2020, an investigation by Number 10’s adviser on ministerial standards found that she had bullied staff and broken the ministerial code, but Patel received no formal admonition and was not sacked. On learning of the Prime Minister’s continued support for Patel, Johnson’s adviser resigned in protest [20].
In March 2021, Patel’s department produced a “Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill” that proposed sinister alterations to the laws surrounding peaceful protest. After the bill was submitted to the House of Lords, the Home Office made 18 pages of amendments intended to give police and the Home Office absolute control over the ways people are allowed to protest in the UK. Under the amended rules, demonstrations that are arbitrarily deemed too noisy, or which block roads, can immediately be shut down by the police. Members of the public can be searched if they look like they might be going to do something disruptive and if found with superglue on their person can be jailed for over a year. Despite no opposition from Conservatives, the bill provoked an outcry from democratic groups and opposition MPs. When the bill was debated in Parliament, DUP MP Gavin Robinson articulated the thoughts of many [21]:
“… I rail against, in the strongest possible terms, the overarching, sweeping and draconian provisions on protest… The loose and lazy way this legislation is drafted would make a dictator blush. Protests will be noisy, protests will disrupt and no matter how offensive we may find the issue at their heart, the right to protest should be protected.”
Fortunately, the House of Lords recently blocked Patel’s additions to the bill.
Finally we come to Johnson’s own record as Prime Minister. He began by introducing two new words into our everyday language: “unprecedented”, which was used to excuse every mistake made by the Conservatives inside or outside the pandemic; and “prorogue”, a previously abstruse jargon-word, rudely exhumed when Johnson advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 28 August 2019. The prorogation was intended to force through a Brexit Deal and avoid Parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s Brexit plans, but in September 2019 it was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court. This was followed by an Internal Market Bill that breached international law and provoked a rain of resignations from government and the civil service [22]. In July 2020, Boris Johnson announced 36 new life peers despite claims that he was committed to reducing the size of the House of Lords. The announcement was made in the first days of summer recess, when the government cannot be challenged in Parliament [11] and many of the new appointees – friends, family members, party donors and media moguls [23] – had no supporting qualifications besides a conflict of interest. It was Johnson’s government that created the “VIP lane” for Covid contracts that the High court has recently declared illegal [24]. Following a 2-year independent investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner, Conservative MP Owen Paterson was found to be in “egregious” breach of lobbying rules by “repeatedly” approaching ministers on behalf of two companies that were paying him a salary exceeding £100k [25]. Against the commissioner’s advice, the government voted to spare Paterson a 30-day suspension from Parliament and abolish the standards committee – proposing a new committee with a Conservative chair and majority [5]. Shortly after the vote, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng stated on Sky News [26]:
“I think it’s difficult to see what the future of the commissioner is, given the fact that we’re reviewing the process, and we’re overturning and trying to reform this whole process, but it’s up to the commissioner to decide her position.”
The uproar that followed, with ringing denouncements in the press and from MPs of all parties, forced the government to reverse its decision the following day and accept the findings of the Standards Committee. Paterson resigned, but complained bitterly about the unfairness of the report and denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Johnson has likewise refused to apologize for the government’s actions [27].
One might reasonably observe that all this was to be expected, given Johnson’s longstanding contempt for the truth and for taxpayer’s money. One could cite his sacking from the Times for fabricating a quote [28], the tens of millions of pounds he spent on disastrous projects as Mayor of London [29], or his lies about the £350m a week that could be salvaged from the EU after Brexit and given to the NHS [30]… But we started with the Conservative Covid party scandal and it is illustrative of Johnson’s political genius. First he simply denied that the parties ever took place. When email evidence was produced, Johnson conceded that they may have taken place but that all government Covid guidance was followed [31]. When photos then emerged of guests not following the rules, he claimed he had little knowledge of the details despite the fact that they took place in the Downing Street garden. Finally, Johnson was forced to accept that he actually attended a garden party but that he felt it was a “work event” [32]. When Johnson offered his staggeringly disingenuous apology during Prime Minister’s Questions, stressing that it was his past judgement which was at fault, Keir Starmer pointedly recalled that ministers “who knowingly mislead parliament will be expected to offer their resignation”. Under current rules there is no way to enforce this, but the results of Sue Gray’s inquiry may force Johnson’s hand.
Why, then, do we care that he broke the Covid isolation rules and went to a party? Relative to all the other things Johnson has done – the repeated lying, the ineptitude, the authoritarian creep – it is trivial. One of the most important lessons from the Covid crisis and Brexit is how banana-shaped our democracy is. Our political systems are not designed to stop people with no morals – we saw it in America with Trump and we have seen it in the UK with Johnson. People are now calling for the ministerial code of conduct to become law [33]. The government has an Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) that can investigate conflicts of interest, but it sorely needs the power to veto appointments [34].
It is a fact that politicians with, for example, egregious views on climate change, education, taxation or voting reform, may still have a better idea than you about how to solve a problem. Recognizing that there are intelligent people on both sides of the Commons is at the root of political collaboration and problem-solving, but the danger of Johnsonian/Trumpian tactics is that they harm our belief in this principle. By repeatedly lying and pumping money into their own bank accounts, they build themselves up as our political enemies. They have decided they are not interested in compromise or power-sharing, accountability or Deutsch’s “error correction” [35]. Therefore we are in danger of becoming like them – unable to listen to good advice.
Though it may seem counter-productive to criticize a handful of Conservative kleptocrats, the fact remains that Johnson’s government is still standing. Revisiting their various offences helps us understand how a democratic system can be manipulated. It also allows us to cut through Johnson’s persistent verbiage, because the only way to identify a po-faced lie is to remember the truth. If an MP is happy to lie when it suits them, repeatedly ignore questions, deny misconduct even when it has been proven, hamper official investigations or even fabricate evidence, then before anything else can be done we must remember.
1As evidenced by their willingness to gift anything from a peerage to planning approval, provided they can leverage a sufficient bribe.
2And rising!
References and Further Reading
[1] The Seven Principles of Public Life (the Nolan Principles), Committee on Standards in Public Life, UK government, 31 May 1995. URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life–2
[2] David Parsley, the i, Lord Pickles: Government lobbying watchdog head has top role in lobbying group, URL: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/lord-pickles-government-lobbying-watchdog-head-role-group-959388
[3] Peter Geoghegan, Lobbying watchdog chair failed to publicly declare role on Tory business forum, openDemocracy UK, URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/lobbying-watchdog-chair-failed-publicly-declare-role-tory-business-forum/
[4] Bully Girls, Private Eye, 1563, pp. 15, 18 Dec – 6 Jan 2022.
[5] Toby Helm, Jon Ungoed-Thomas, Michael Savage and Tom Wall, Return of the sleazy party: the Conservatives and the Owen Paterson affair, the Guardian, URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/07/return-of-the-sleazy-party-the-conservatives-and-the-owen-paterson-affair
[6] Peter Walker, Tory plan to scrap election watchdog ‘undermines democracy’, the Guardian, 31 Aug 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/31/tory-plans-to-scrap-election-watchdog-undermines-democracy
[7] Investigation into government procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic, National Audit Office, 2020. URL: https://www.nao.org.uk/press-release/investigation-into-government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
[8] India Bourke, Peaceful protest is under threat from the new UK Policing Bill, the New Statesman, 9 December 2021. URL: https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/climate/2021/12/peaceful-protest-is-under-threat-from-the-new-uk-policing-bill
[9] Jim Waterson, BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen, the Guardian, 16 Jan 2022. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/16/bbc-licence-fee-to-be-abolished-in-2027-and-funding-frozen
[10] Dan Sabbagh, No 10 told Charles Moore appointment could put BBC’s independence at risk, the Guardian, 27 Sep 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/sep/27/no-10-told-charles-moore-appointment-could-put-bbcs-independence-at-risk
[11] Queen’s Birthday Honours, Private Eye, 1533, pp. 16, 23 Oct-5 Nov 2020.
[12] Jim Waterson and Rajeev Syal, Keir Starmer: Tories’ doctored TV footage is ‘act of desperation’, the Guardian, 6 Nov 2019. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/05/tories-unrepentant-about-doctored-video-of-keir-starmer-tv-appearance
[13] Jim Waterson, Tories pretend to be factchecking service during leaders’ debate, the Guardian, 19 Nov 2019. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/19/tories-tweet-anti-labour-posts-under-factcheckuk-brand
[14] Christopher Hitchens, America the Banana Republic, Arguably, Atlantic Books, pp. 94-95, 2011.
[15] Minister accepts Isle of Dogs housing development ‘was unlawful’, BBC News, 27 May 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52826751
[16] Billy Kenber, Tories gave Robert Jenrick home renovation the go-ahead, The Times, 24 June 2020. URL: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-gave-robert-jenrick-home-renovation-the-go-ahead-9s6580zkm
[17] Paul Church, Twitter, 25 Feb 2018. URL: https://twitter.com/pauljchurch/status/967834976610865152
[18] “Unimaginable” cost of Test & Trace failed to deliver central promise of averting another lockdown, UK Parliament, 10 March 2021. URL: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/150988/unimaginable-cost-of-test-trace-failed-to-deliver-central-promise-of-averting-another-lockdown/
[19] Andrew Woodcock, Treasury’s former top mandarin blasts test and trace as ‘most wasteful spending of all time’, the Independent, 10 March 2021. URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/test-trace-coronavirus-harding-macpherson-b1815057.html
[20] Heather Stewart and Simon Murphy, Boris Johnson adviser quits after being overruled on Priti Patel bullying report, the Guardian, 20 Nov 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/20/priti-patel-boris-johnson-bullying-report-findings
[21] Gavin Robinson, Debate: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, 2nd reading, Tuesday 16th March 2021. URL: https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/gavin-robinson/debate/2021-03-16/commons/commons-chamber/police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill
[22] Lord Keen: Senior law officer quits over Brexit bill row, BBC News, 16 September 2020. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-54179745
[23] Peter Walker and Ben Quinn, Boris Johnson ‘still committed to Lords reduction’ despite 36 peerages, the Guardian, 3 Aug 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/03/no-10-boris-johnson-pm-still-committed-lords-reduction-despite-36-peerages
[24] David Conn, Emails emerge of ‘VIP route’ for UK Covid test contracts, the Guardian, 23 Sep 2021. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/23/emails-emerge-of-vip-route-for-uk-covid-test-contracts
[25] Committee on Standards publish report on the conduct of Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, UK Parliament, 26 Oct 2021. URL: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/290/committee-on-standards/news/158246/committee-on-standards-publish-report-on-the-conduct-of-rt-hon-owen-paterson-mp/
[26] Alastair Reed, Owen Paterson lobbying scandal: What’s it all about?, The Big Issue, 4 Nov 2021. URL: https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/owen-paterson-lobbying-scandal-whats-it-all-about/
[27] Aubrey Allegretti, Owen Paterson: his claims and how they stack up in analysis, the Guardian, 3 Nov 2021. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/03/owen-paterson-his-claims-and-how-they-stack-up-in-analysis
[28] Peter Stubley, Boris Johnson: The most infamous lies and untruths by the Conservative leadership candidate, the Independent, 25 May 2019. URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-lies-conservative-leader-candidate-list-times-banana-brexit-bus-a8929076.html
[29] Matthew Weaver, Boris Johnson ‘ignored expert advice’ over £1bn mayoral vanity projects, the Guardian, 16 Jul 2019. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/16/boris-johnson-accused-of-costing-taxpayers-1bn-on-london-mayor-projects
[30] UK Statistics Authority statement on the use of official statistics on contributions to the European Union, UK Statistics Authority, 27 May 2016. URL: https://uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/uk-statistics-authority-statement-on-the-use-of-official-statistics-on-contributions-to-the-european-union/
[31] Chris Stafford, Boris Johnson’s Downing Street party apology: three key takeaways, The Conversation, 12 Jan 2022. URL: https://theconversation.com/boris-johnsons-downing-street-party-apology-three-key-takeaways-174814
[32] Nick Hopkins and Rajeev Syal, Boris Johnson’s No 10 lockdown party apology: what he said and what he meant, the Guardian, 12 Jan 2022. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2022/jan/12/boris-johnson-no-10-lockdown-party-apology-what-he-said-and-what-he-meant
[33] Daniel Bruce, It’s time for the Ministerial Code to become law, URL: https://www.transparency.org.uk/ministerial-code-UK-nolan-principles-public-ethical-standards
[34] Written evidence submitted by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, Public Administration Committee, UK Parliament URL: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmpubadm/404/404we03.htm
[35] Sam Knight, What Will Brexit Britain Be Like?, The New Yorker, 31 Jan 2020. URL: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/what-will-brexit-britain-be-like
Philip Bradford 