The threat to Boris Johnson may not only come from sleaze, but from the impact of a winter convergence of lower growth and higher prices
“Tories at war in cabinet showdown” reported the Daily Mail on Friday. “Sleaze row boils over” said the Times. “Court of chaos” proclaimed the Spectator, surveying the disarray in 10 Downing Street. And these are just the headlines from the Conservatives’ own Fleet Street cheerleaders. Nevertheless, at the end of one of the prime minister’s worst political weeks, they tell a true story. There is a sea change in Britain’s political mood taking shape.
Boris Johnson’s once-triumphalist government is rattled. Sleaze has been the undoubted trigger for the fractious midterm mood coursing through the Conservative party. But it is not the whole cause, and therein lies the prime minister’s deeper problem. His press this week on the second jobs furore has been terrible, but there may be worse to come on other issues, not least on the economy, where Britain’s recovery lags behind the rest of the G7, and the cost of living, where fuel costs are set to spike again in the new year. This is one reason why Mr Johnson is desperately trying to ring the Brexit tocsin again over the Northern Ireland protocol that he signed but now wishes to disown.
