Boris Johnson sang Glora Gaynor’s classic disco anthem “I will survive,” in a bid to reassure his new director of communications that he wasn’t going to be forced out office.
Guto Harri, who started work Monday after a string of resignations from Johnson’s office last week, also described his new boss as “not a complete clown,” in an interview with Welsh language website golwg360, according to a BBC translation.
Johnson’s premiership is at a tipping point after 5 key aides quit last week and as Conservative members of Parliament mull whether to demand a vote of confidence in his leadership.
The prime minister has been under pressure for weeks amid a steady drip of allegations of rule-breaking parties in Downing Street during successive coronavirus lockdowns. A preliminary civil service report into them last week identified “failures of leadership and judgment,” and the matter is now being investigated by the police.
Harri told the Welsh website he’d asked Johnson “Are you going to survive, Boris?” and the premier had started to sing as he used the line from the Gaynor song in his reply.
Earlier Harri made a joke out of his arrival by brandishing a shopping bag, which he told reporters contained mineral water. It was a reference to how aides reportedly took a suitcase to a supermarket to fill it with alcohol for one of the parties that’s now under investigation.
Harri, who is Welsh, was hired Friday and previously worked for Johnson when he served as London mayor. Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay has taken the chief of staff role.
