Boris Johnson continues to "stumble into frivolities" (Daily Mail) and repeated "own goals" (The Independent). And his government is based on "rampant lies, chaos and neglect" (The Guardian).
Despite the joy for the birth of his seventh daughter , these are difficult days for the British Prime Minister, who is constantly in the crosshairs of the British media for a long series of scandals and controversies, as well as for the difficulty in coping with the Covid epidemic, which in the United Kingdom is registering a new record of infections (58 thousand in the latest bulletin), also due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
A black period, in short, for BoJo, to the point that the BBC wonders if “the planet Boris is now destined to implode”, leaving to others the burden and the honor of leading the government.
In addition to the new, overwhelming wave of infections in the United Kingdom ( "a tsunami" as the Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon defined it), the new revelations on the so-called "scandal of Christmas " . That of 2020, on the occasion of which Downing Street officials - including men and women very close to the premier - organized not one but three parties, despite the country struggling with severe restrictions precisely to contain the pandemic.
Not only. The conservative party, of which Johnson is one of the leading exponents, was fined by the Electoral Commission for 17,800 pounds (over 20,000 euros) for failing to correctly declare a donation of over 50,000 pounds (almost 60,000 euros) made last year by a lord - David Brownlow - to cover the cost of renovating the Downing Street apartment where the premier lives with his family.
But the tabloids also highlight the serious state of public health , the contradictions and even the "lies" told by Johnson to try to make the cases involving him less thorny in front of public opinion.
Not to mention the repeated gaffes, like the one in front of British industrialists, when from the stage, during his speech, having lost the thread of the conversation, Boris started as if nothing had to talk about Peppa Pig, to then compare himself to Moses.
The result: the polls now show Labor in clear advance, while the Tories are retreating.
Just enough so that in the corridors of Westminster the word "mistrust" does not stop being whispered - and in an increasingly insistent way.
The tabloids, even, have already started the full names for the succession. And in pole position to take the place of the former mayor of London there would be the Minister of Finance Rishi Sunak (who is also often in the crosshairs of the press) or the owner of Foreign Affairs Liz Truss.
(Unioneonline / lf)