The prime minister’s mishandling of sleaze has confirmed his party’s worst fears: he hasn’t got a plan
The clearest indicator of how Boris Johnson’s standing has fallen within his own party came on Wednesday at prime minister’s questions. It wasn’t anything he said – even if his bad-tempered performance rang alarm bells with parliamentary colleagues, and one of his former ministers implied that northern voters might have been wrong to trust him. It was how few MPs bothered to show up to support him.
After a bruising few weeks of Tory sleaze accusations, there could have been an attempt to put on a united front. Instead, large patches of green leather were visible. It was a stark illustration that the Conservative party is divided, and that Johnson’s MPs currently feel little loyalty towards their leader.
Katy Balls is deputy political editor of the Spectator
