Boris Johnson has long been considered a king of comebacks. And some Tory MPs hope he’ll continue that streak by managing to rescue himself from plummeting poll ratings in the wake of a string of Downing Street parties in defiance of Covid laws.
The prime minister had tangled himself in knots by repeatedly denying any rules were broken before more reports and evidence emerged to suggest the opposite.
First there was the video of No 10 aides laughing while they discussed a Christmas gathering on 18 December last year. Then Dominic Cummings, once Johnson’s closest adviser, promised pictures had been taken of parties, and so with bated breath critics of the government waited for them to surface.
When an image was published on Sunday showing Johnson on a screen hosting a Christmas quiz for staffers tuning in from No 10 and at home, it was not quite the smoking gun some thought would finally skewer him, however.
The Sunday Mirror image shows Johnson with two aides who were dressed up with tinsel and a Santa hat – not socially distanced from one another, and clearly engaged in a social occasion while mixing households. But it could have been worse.
There have been other parties hosted in No 10 and Conservative party headquarters in which people drank copious amounts of alcohol, played party games, exchanged secret Santa gifts and socialised into the small hours, sources have told media outlets including the Guardian, Mirror, BBC and Times.
Ministers will quietly breath a sigh of relief no pictures of these scenes have been leaked – yet.
While Johnson’s attendance at the quiz broke the rules, according to Keir Starmer, the Labour leader and a former director of public prosecutions, Tory MPs think people will look at the photo and judge that it really shows him hosting a virtual quiz – a familiar sight during the pandemic.
The staff, dialling in from other rooms in No 10 while drinking and not socially distancing, cannot be seen. On Sunday Nadhim Zahawi insisted the picture was just an example of Johnson “thanking his staff” and used it to play down the party scandal as “hype”.
He told LBC: “On that front page, I think your listeners will look at that and see a PM in his office, with the two close people that work with him, with no alcohol, taking 10 to 15 minutes to thank and motivate his staff, who have been coming in because they can’t work from home.”
Much damage has already been done, with mutinous MPs furious at the prime minister allowing a “one rule for them” narrative to take hold, from Cummings to Matt Hancock and more recently Owen Paterson. Johnson is teetering on the edge of favour with his own MPs; if further photos surface, they may push him over the edge.