Boris Johnson investigated for the exorbitant redec …

The versions of Daily mail, Time, the BBC and the chain ITV about what he said Boris Johnson in September and October of last year, they are explosive. Faced with the need to return to detention at this time, the The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom shouted in one meeting that he preferred the coronavirus to explode with everything and, in another, that “corpses piled up by the thousands” rather than imposing new restrictions that were unnecessary and hurt economic activity.

This Wednesday at Communal room Johnson responded to the Labor leader, Keir Starmer, that the accusation was totally false. “The right honorable gentleman is a lawyer (… the honorable gentleman is a lawyer …) and if you want to repeat allegations of this type, you must bring evidence to this House and say where you got the information and who said that, ”Johnson replied.

During a previous dialogue with the press, his spokesperson had given a less forceful response. “I have read these notes and speculations which distort the conduct of the Prime Minister who has always focused on saving lives and jobs,” said the spokesperson. Monday, the Chief of Staff, Michael grove, brandished a similar response in parliament: defend Johnson without categorically denying. “I find it incredible that he could say something of that nature,” Gove said.

More than 150,000 people have died from Covid, according to the National Statistics Office. The British group Covid 19 Justice for bereaved families accused the Prime Minister of incredible callousness and demanded his resignation. “For more than 150,000 families who have lost their loved ones, these comments are a knife that causes us indescribable pain. This is why we want there to be an urgent public inquiry to understand the decisions that have been taken, ”said a spokesperson.

Johnson’s tribulations aren’t limited to the turmoil caused by what he did or didn’t say in September and October. Over the past two weeks, what has accumulated in Johnson’s office is a long list of complaints related to his exorbitant redecoration of 10 Downing Street (58 thousand pounds) and the businesses that have arisen with the coronavirus for the supply of materials.

These deals are littered with high numbers from the Conservatives. Among the most prominent are the Minister of Finance, Rishi sunack, Health Matt hancock and the former prime minister David cameron, which was already on the Panama Papers list and in the 2009 parliamentary special spending scandal.

The monk in the shadows

A fundamental link in all of these revelations is Boris Johnson’s former adviser, Dominic cummings, mastermind of Brexit and the Conservative campaign in the 2019 election. Cummings left government in November last year after a series of shorts with Carrie Symonds, Boris Johnson’s fiancée and mother of his last child.

In government, they blame Cummings for press leaks in recent weeks. Among those leaks, supported by more compelling evidence such as WhatsApp messages or emails, is Johnson’s promise to a British businessman on tax breaks, which he made to the Saudi crown for helping with the acquisition of Newcastle United and behind the scenes funding the decoration of 10 Downing Street.

On Friday, Cummings responded to the accusation with a devastating blog in which he redoubled the bet. According to the Johnson blog, he had asked Conservative Party donors to fund the arrangements, which “is unethical, is stupid, may be illegal and violates the rules on political donations.”

Indeed, the code of conduct prohibits party donors from secretly funding any activity of an elected politician unless they immediately declare it. In parliament, Johnson said he paid the £ 58,000 out of his own pocket, but avoided answering whether he had done so from the start or after receiving a loan from a donor who didn’t. had not declared.

On May 26, Cummings is scheduled to testify before the Parliamentary Health Committee that he is reviewing the government’s conduct during the pandemic. On the Cummings blog, he hints that Johnson reacted late and badly to the March pandemic and that in September and October he opposed a new lockdown, something that is collectively known, but has content explosive when it comes directly from the prime minister’s senior advisor throughout this period. Cummings is one possible source of the commentary on corpses piled up to save the economy, but what tells Johnson and his advisers the most is the treasure trove of messages and other evidence he can present to the committee on this. and other topics.

Tip of the iceberg

The scandals surrounding Johnson are the tip of the iceberg. An investigation by the National Audit revealed that since the start of the pandemic, contracts of around 10 billion pounds had been awarded without any type of tender invoking the Covid 19 crisis. According to Transparency International, one in five contracts signed by the government is questionable in one or more indicators of corruption.

Examples from the last few weeks include Health Minister Matt Hancock, who owns a 15% stake in his sister company Topwood Ltd, which won two £ 150,000 contracts in March this year with the National Health Service. Two of Johnson’s ad honorem advisors have a firm, Francis Maude Associates, which advises foreign governments on their lucrative government contracts.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has been mired for more than a month in growing controversy over his direct access to ministers whom he tried to convince to help financier Greensill Capital, which went bankrupt in March. Cameron’s contacts included Finance Minister Rishi Sunak. In one of the emails, Sunak tells Cameron that he ordered his team to “look for alternatives that might work for the bank.”

This almost daily series of scandals comes amid a pandemic in which the government appears to have the ace of spades: more than half of the total population has taken a dose of the vaccine, a quarter of adults have taken both. Terrified by the January crisis, the British now feel safe and even dream of regaining some semblance of normalcy in the months to come. Thanks to vaccines, many have forgotten the government’s blunders of the past year. Polls show the Tories lead Labor by 10 points in the May 6 local election, despite another poll showing six in ten voters do not trust the prime minister.. Of course, as it stands, no one can guarantee what other leak will emerge tomorrow or how long the political armor of vaccines will hold up.