Senior Conservatives fear the toxic legacy of Boris Johnson’s Partygate lies could overshadow upcoming by-election campaigns, despite Rishi Sunak’s desire to draw a line under the rows swirling around his predecessor.
No 10 insisted that Mr Sunak considers the scandal over Mr Johnson’s misleading parliament to be over after Monday night’s overwhelming vote for a motion to punish the former prime minister by removing his pass.
But pressure is now building on the PM to overturn Mr Johnson’s resignation honours, while former mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey is facing calls from senior Tories to turn down the peerage granted by Mr Johnson amid outrage over the December 2020 party held by his staff.
The Metropolitan Police commissioner has signalled that a full-blown investigation into the “mingle and jingle” Christmas bash at Tory HQ was inevitable. “I think we can all guess which way it will go,” Sir Mark Rowley told the News Agents podcast on initial inquiries.
It comes as the Liberal Democrats launched an attempt to overturn Mr Johnson’s honours, writing to the committee which removes gongs to ask whether the list can be “revoked in its entirety”.
Tory peer Lord Hayward told The Independent that Mr Johnson’s ongoing Partygate legacy “may hang over the by-elections” in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Selby and Ainsty, Somerton and Frome, and Mid-Bedfordshire.
The elections expert said Mr Johnson and related rows would only be one issue but could set back Mr Sunak’s attempt to make a fresh start after the Johnson era.
“It doesn’t help,” said Lord Hayward. “There’s no doubt it will feature on some [opposition] campaign leaflets. But for many people who have moved on, it will be interest rates and other issues that will be more important.”
Some senior Tories told The Independent it is not yet clear how much extra damage the Johnson “circus” has caused in recent weeks, while others said anger over Partygate was “priced in” and would not cause the loss of any more votes.
One former Tory minister who has been campaigning in Mr Johnson’s old Uxbridge seat said voters hadn’t raised the CCHQ Christmas party video. “No one mentioned it”, they said, insisting that Partygate outrage is “already baked in”.
Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine has written to the forfeiture committee – the body which removes honours over serious wrongdoing – to ask for an investigation into the “potential withdrawal of all of Boris Johnson’s honours which fall under the scope of your committee”.
She added: “Clearly, the circumstances around this list … are unprecedented and have brought the honours system into disrepute. I believe that there are grounds for examining whether Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list can be revoked in its entirety.”
The forfeiture committee, part of the Cabinet Office, considers cases when the holder of an honour has brought the system into disrepute. However, the body deals with honours such as knighthoods rather than peerages, which can only be removed by an act of parliament.
Mr Sunak has been urged to help strip Mr Bailey of the peerage he was given in Mr Johnson’s honours list, and of the OBE given to aide Ben Mallet, also visible in the Christmas party video shared with The Mirror.
Senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, said there are now “big questions” around Mr Bailey’s peerage. “Absolutely, he needs to consider that,” Mr Ellwood told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme when asked if he should hand back the honour.
No 10 said Mr Sunak – who did not vote on Monday as MPs overwhelming backed the findings of the scathing report into Mr Johnson’s conduct – “respects” the decision of the House and considers the matter closed, but would not be drawn further.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said it was “astonishing” that the Tory leader “still doesn’t have an opinion about his disgraced predecessor”, adding: “It’s a total failure of leadership.”
Rupert McNeil, a former official responsible for civil service staff during the pandemic, told MPs on Tuesday that lockdown parties in Downing Street were “exceptionally disappointing” and the leadership in No 10 “set the tone” for bad behaviour.
He told the public administration committee: “That whole episode is exceptionally disappointing … It is absolutely clear that in any organisation the tone is set from the very top, whether that’s the political leadership or the management leadership.”
Senior Labour MP Chris Bryant said there was a sense of despair in Tory ranks, after hopes they could focus on economic recovery under the Sunak government. “As a former Conservative cabinet minister said to me earlier, ‘It’s unsustainable. It’s time for a general election’,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
However, Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed that getting rid of Mr Johnson handed a big poll lead to Labour. The Boris backer told GB News: “When Boris Johnson left the prime ministership, the Tories were a few points behind in the opinion polls and now we’re about 20 points behind in the opinion polls.”
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves warned chancellor Jeremy Hunt not to “pass the buck” as she pointed to rising mortgage costs in by-election seats.
In Mr Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, around 10,000 households will be paying on average £5,200 a year more, according to Labour analysis. “Each and every family knows who is responsible for trashing the economy, it is the Conservative Party,” said Ms Reeves.
