It has been an explosive week of corruption allegations levelled against Boris Johnson’s government, which has led Dominic Grieve, a former Tory attorney-general, to describe Johnson himself as a ‘vacuum of integrity. Downing Street has been under increasing scrutiny over the last few weeks after the Greensill lobbying scandal shone new light on this government’s repeated lack of transparency about the use of public funds in political decision-making.
Grieve’s comments follow fresh on the heels of those made by the PM’s former advisor, Dominic Cummings, who around this time last year infamously broke lockdown to ‘test his eyesight’ by driving to Barnard Castle.
Cummings – who served as an unelected official in Johnson’s cabinet – attacked the PM in a post on his online blog when it was revealed that Johnson had private text messages with the British entrepreneur, James Dyson. Johnson, who has a long history of using his mobile phone for political activity, personally guaranteed Dyson that his employees would not pay additional tax rates if they came to the UK to make ventilators, claiming: ‘I will fix it tomo!‘
Cummings, who may himself be wary that the spotlight could quickly turn on his own conduct during the Brexit campaign, was accused by No. 10 of leaking Johnson’s texts to Dyson. Multiple government insiders expressed their bafflement over the PM’s handling of Cummings’ departure, which set the stage for what is being called “Cummings’ revenge”.
Having only left Downing Street in November, the PM’s former aide criticized Johnson as having behaved in a ‘mad and unethical’ manner, claiming that ‘it is sad to see the PM and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves’.
Cummings also criticised Johnson’s lack of transparency over how the PM paid for the renovation of his flat at No. 11 Downing Street, which reportedly cost up to £200,000, in which he lives with his fiance and child. Labour’s Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, told Andrew Marr on Sunday that the British public deserves answers: ‘Where are you getting money, Boris, to do up your flat?’
Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that Johnson paid out of his back pocket, but questions remain as to where he got the money. Cummings referred to a secret plan in which Johnson used political donations, which he described as ‘unethical, foolish, possibly illegal’.
It was revealed in an Opinium poll for The Observer that four out of 10 voters think the Conservatives are untrustworthy, in a snapshot taken before Cummings’ blog post on Friday. The Tories, who have enjoyed a period of favourable polling after the success of the vaccine rollout, still stand eleven points ahead of Labour (44% to 33%), but 37% of respondents described Johnson as mostly or completely corrupt, compared with 31% who described him as honest. 38% described the Conservative Party as a whole as corrupt, compared with another 31% who described it as honest.
This compares with a drastically lower 16% of respondents who described the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, as corrupt, and 40% who described him as clean and honest, with 22% of respondents describing the Labour Party itself as corrupt. Matt Hancock, who has been under fire for his distribution of Covid contracts and failure to disclose business links, was also described by 33% of respondents as corrupt.
Labour has described the Tories as ‘fighting like rats in a sack’ and showing ‘breathtaking contempt for the British public’. With local elections less than two weeks away, the potential political damage for the party will be revealed very shortly.
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