Could it be the Saville comment that finally brings down Boris?
Today scenes in the Westminster area when police had to rescue Starmer from anti-lockdown protestors is the latest development in the Saville slur saga which began with Johnson at PMQs at the end of January. For the driving force of the crowd’s apparent anger was an attack on Starmer over the Saville case when he was DPP. This was even though this has been widely rebuked.
What has struck me as worrying for Number 10 is the number of Tory MPs who have been moved to condemn what happened on the streets and to call on Johnson to unequivocally withdraw his comments about the Opposition leader.
This is all very tricky for the PM who got into enough trouble over his personal approach to the first lockdown in 2020. Basically, Johnson needs to make an apology and withdraw his comments about Starmer. Only problem here is that this approach is entirely alien to Johnson’s personality. He doesn’t do unequivocal apologies and full withdrawals.
It could be that Johnson’s response or lack of response to these events triggers enough CON MPs to send letters in demanding a confidence vote.
This comes just at a time when it looked as though the PM would survive for now this issue arises.