Historian brands UK’s Johnson ‘rogue prime minister unworthy of Queen’

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a “rogue prime minister unworthy of the Queen” who is “sweeping aside all the conventions” in an “assault on the institutions of the state,” a leading historian told the BBC on Sunday.

Lord Peter Hennessey, 75, is a crossbencher in the House of Lords and Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London.

He said Johnson had “broken the law, misled Parliament and has in effect shredded the Ministerial Code.”

“The decencies and probities and conventions of public life are not enough to constrain the ego that is currently filling No10,” Lord Hennessy said.

Lord Hennessy, who was a journalist and economist before co-founding the Institute for Contemporary British History, added: “I think we’re in the most severe constitutional crisis involving a Prime Minister that I can remember. It goes to the heart of the character of the Prime Minister.”

He described the day Johnson received his fine for attending a COVID lockdown-breaking party as being “forever remembered as a dark bleak day for British public and political life. It is the day Boris Johnson became the great debaser in modern times of decency in public and political life and of our constitutional conventions - our very system of government.”

Lord Hennessy has written a number of books on post-war British political history.

In his comments to the BBC, he continued: “If there were cocks on the Chequers estate, they would have crowed at their very loudest at this point as the Prime Minister sealed his place in British history as the first law-breaker to occupy the premiership - an office he has sullied like no other, turning it into an adventure playground for one man’s narcissistic vanity.”

“Boris Johnson has broken the law, misled Parliament, and has in effect shredded the Ministerial Code which is a crucial part of the spinal cord of the constitution.

“And the great weakness of the system is that the Prime Minister, the wrong-un in chief, is the guardian of the code and with it the supposed protector of accountability and decency.

“The Queen’s First Minister is now beyond doubt a rogue Prime Minister, unworthy of her, her Parliament, her people and her Kingdom.

“I cannot remember a day when I’ve been more fearful for the wellbeing of the constitution.”

Johnson received a fine from the police on Tuesday for attending a birthday party held for him in June 2020 in Downing Street while the rest of the country was in lockdown.

His wife Carrie Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were also fined for attending the same event.

All three paid the fine, believed to be £50 ($65), and apologized.

The police have so far issued over 50 fines as a result of their ongoing investigation into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street and the government.

Twelve gatherings are being investigated by the police, and Johnson has been reported to have attended six of them – and he has not ruled out being handed further fines.

The full version of the government commissioned investigation into the parties by leading civil servant Sue Gray is also yet to be published as she is awaiting the end of the police investigation. A heavily redacted summary was published earlier this year.

A snap poll by YouGov on the day of Johnson’s fine found that 57% of voters believed Johnson should resign and 75% believed he had knowingly lied.

Johnson is expected to make a statement in parliament on Tuesday apologizing for breaking his COVID-19 rules, and on Wednesday local media report that parliament could vote on whether a parliamentary investigation will be opened into whether he misled parliament, which under normal circumstances is a resigning matter.

On Friday, Johnson will also seek to reassert his position as prime minister by carrying out a trade and defense trip to India which was previously delayed due to the pandemic.