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Increasingly desperate Boris Johnson has ordered his staff to escalate personal attacks on Labor leader Keir Starmer and his record as a lawyer, as confidence in the prime minister’s leadership collapses among members of the Conservative party.
the Observer He has been told that Johnson was so furious after questions from the prime minister last Wednesday, where he was asked by President Lindsay Hoyle to withdraw comments he made about the Labor leader and the IRA, that he turned on his staff for putting him down. prepared, and asked them to come up with more lines of attack on the Labor leader’s career as a lawyer.
“He was furious,” said a well-placed source. “He told his team and the people at CCHQ [Conservative campaign headquarters] that he wanted them to pursue Starmer’s legal record and redouble their attacks on him. “
Last week’s Commons dispute erupted after Starmer pressured Johnson in the PMQs over the recent exam fiasco and succession of his party’s policy changes.
Johnson tried to turn the tables, suddenly suggesting that the Labor leader had somehow sympathized with the IRA because he had worked with Jeremy Corbyn. “This is an opposition leader who supported a politician who condones the IRA,” Johnson said, to the bewilderment of MPs from all sides of the house.
An angry Starmer pointed out that he had, in fact, spent five years of his legal career prosecuting IRA terrorists and working with intelligence services to bring the terrorists to justice. Despite Hoyle’s request that Johnson apologize, he declined to do so.
A Labor source said: “If Boris Johnson wants to have a debate with Keir about past careers, then go ahead. While Keir was a human rights lawyer or director of the public prosecutor’s office, Johnson was being fired for lying. “
Last night, Downing Street claimed that it was “not true” that Johnson had blamed his staff for their performance at PMQ or that he had told someone he wanted to prepare more attacks on Starmer during his time as a lawyer.
But increasingly, his actions and those of the government are causing alarm among Conservative MPs and concern in Whitehall.
Some high-level conservatives are beginning to worry that Starmer will regularly outperform the prime minister in the weekly showdown on Wednesdays. A senior Conservative MP said: “It is the issue of competition that concerns us against Starmer.”
As the country faces a possible second wave of Covid-19 and the prospect of an economically damaging no-deal Brexit, there is evidence that the Conservative party as a whole is losing faith in Johnson’s ability to lead them against Starmer, and there is signs that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has become the new darling of the conservative ranks.
According to the latest poll of Conservative members by ConservativeHome, the party’s activist website, Johnson is now in the bottom third of cabinet ministers in satisfaction ratings, having been the fugitive leader nine months ago.
In December 2019, shortly after the last general election, Johnson topped the net satisfaction ratings with a score of over 92.5%, while Sunak was fourth at over 78.5%.
Now Johnson has fallen to 19th place, below Baroness Evans, leader of the House of Lords, with a rating of over 24.6%. Meanwhile, Sunak is leading with 82.5% more.
Patrick Stevens, a former colleague of Starmer in the crown prosecution service who was head of its international division, said the Labor leader’s legal career was beyond reproach.
“I worked with Keir Starmer closely for five years. Her work with the CPS world-class counterterrorism division, the most serious and sensitive ever to face the service, was unwavering.
“He was equally committed to the CPS playing its role internationally in the UK government’s national security strategies, leading to the CPS becoming involved in some of the most difficult jurisdictions in the world.
“His efforts went far beyond just getting the job done; I have not personally met anyone more committed to the rights of victims and witnesses and to the protection of the public ”.
On Saturday, ministers faced further difficulties in persuading public officials to “get back to work” as soon as possible.
The government says it wants 80% of civil servants to be able to attend their usual workplaces at least once a week before the end of the month. But the unions have called the government’s attitude outdated.
