Boris Johnson is now facing a “pretty rough Christmas”, amid growing public and political fury in the UK over the ongoing Christmas party scandal.
Since last week, UK media has been reporting widely on a Christmas party said to have taken place at Downing Street on December 18th last year - a time when the rest of London was under lockdown.
Media outlets have also reported on a number of other events and gatherings alleged to have been attended by some Downing Street or Conservative Party staff during last year's lockdown.
Allegra Stratton, a senior aide and spokesperson for Mr Johnson, resigned yesterday after ITV published a video showing her joking about a party during a rehearsal for a news conference last December.
Mr Johnson has apologised for the video and says an investigation into what happened last December will now take place.
However, he claims he has been “repeatedly assured” by his staff that no party took place on December 18th.
Despite his comments, there is anger among even Johnson’s own Conservative Party about the scandal - with a growing number of Tory MPs and peers publicly voicing their frustration at the situation.
There are also concerns the scandal has seriously undermined the new ‘plan B’ COVID-19 restrictions announced by the British prime minister yesterday.
Those restrictions include a return to working from home, increased mask-wearing in indoor settings and the use of vaccine passports for large events.
Philip Webster, former political editor of The Times of London, told Newstalk Breakfast it’s looking like the British prime minister has a difficult festive period ahead of him.
He said: “The main threat to Johnson is from his own party.
"They will go to their constituencies this weekend… if what most of us have experienced over the last few years is anything to go by, there won’t be a single Tory supporter out there who backs Johnson over this matter. People across the country are furious.
“The moment Tory MPs think their leader is a liability, they can be quite ruthless.
"We may be looking back on this in a couple of years time and thinking this could be the moment when it all started going badly wrong for Boris Johnson.”
He said it’s also “quite easy” for the Tories to change prime minister if they need to, as they currently have a large majority in the House of Commons.
Mr Webster observed: “[Boris Johnson] would be well aware of that.
“He knows that he’s got where he is as he’s seen as a winner - the moment he’s seen as a loser he will be expendable.”
Mr Webster said one of the big concerns now is the public will view the new COVID rules as optional if Downing Street is seen to be immune to the measures in place for the rest of society.
As a result, he believes “it will almost be impossible to force people to follow these rules”.
