The prime minister has been found guilty. What next? | thearticle

Most people would think twice about lying with their hand on the Bible. But that is precisely what the Prime Minister is doing when he lies “at the despatch box”. These ornate boxes, made

from native New Zealand puriri wood, are, in a manner of speaking, pulpits, symbols of the covenant between the Crown, the state and the people. They were a gift from the people of New

Zealand to replace those destroyed during World War II, one on the Government’s side of the table, another across the aisle. They contain religious texts for the day when MPs, including the

Prime Minister, take the oath of allegiance to the Queen and to Parliament and swear to uphold the law. Lying at the despatch box is like lying in a court of law or, if you prefer, before

God. It is the unforgivable sin, the original sin, of Britain’s parliamentary democracy. If you can’t trust a Prime Minister at the despatch box, you certainly can’t trust him with your

money, your family or your future. Johnson’s baleful performance in the Commons yesterday, trying to defend the indefensible, was a pitch perfect example of why he is unfit for office:

bombastic, cringingly insincere and manifestly lacking in remorse. His attempt to defend himself by smearing Sir Keir Starmer (falsely) for failing to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile,

was gutter politics: an insult to Starmer, an affront to Parliament and a breathtaking disregard for the time, the occasion and the place. Johnson is guilty. Sue Gray’s report makes that

abundantly clear: guilty of gross negligence if nothing else; guilty of a blinding sense of entitlement; guilty of not knowing or caring if his staff and his family were breaking rules

others had to follow; guilty, frankly, of jaw-dropping stupidity. Number 10 can’t keep a lid on this. One way or another the detail of what went on at the 16 parties will come out. This is

no longer about finessing an argument that subtly shifts blame away from the boss to his feckless underlings. Or indeed to his wife Carrie. She may not be blameless, but blaming her for his

lack of judgment, as the Sunday Times did, is tawdry. Johnson told Parliament: “I get it. And I’ll fix it”. Well he doesn’t and he won’t. Possibly because he can’t. This is what those MPs

who still cling to vanishing possibility of riding this out should consider. He’s out of control. They were fools to think he was ever under control. Life has taught him that he can get away

with pretty much anything. Life is a game to the Booster; so is politics. Behind the façade of the amiable buffoon, lies a finely-honed predator with an almost preternatural talent for

self-advancement. Nothing is sacred. Keir Starmer on Tuesday delivered a dignified, pitiless demolition of Johnson’s rambling defence of Sue Gray’s damning verdict. He was heard in hushed

silence by the House, a silence which spoke volumes. He reminded me of Henry Fonda in Sidney Lumet’s brilliant dissection of the flaws, biases and uncertainty inherent in a trial by jury in

the 1957 movie _Twelve Angry Men_. A small town attorney, a decent man seeking justice in the face of entrenched prejudice. The Government front bench, apart from the Chancellor, were

maskless, their feelings plain for all to see. Home Secretary Priti Patel’s face was frozen in anguish. There are two reasons and only two for keeping a wounded leader in office. The first

is if their virtues significantly outweigh their vices. The second is if they are useful to a sufficiently powerful section of their party. Boris Johnson no longer meets either criterion. It

is now surely abundantly clear to everyone, with the possible exception of the Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, that whatever Johnson’s strengths may be, his flaws are beyond repair. He

is, as my FT colleague and historian Philip Stephens tweeted after the debate, a dead man walking. Johnson’s residual usefulness to the hardline Brexiters and the party’s Right-wing

ideologues is now past its peak. Talk of a bonfire of EU regulations, slashing red tape, freeing the spirit of Brexit to please the base, sounded more like panic than policy. Even his most

ardent devotees must see that the man who gave them Brexit and a big majority in 2019 is no longer a winner. The wounds are too deep. The sense of betrayal among those who suffered in silent

obedience during the peak of the pandemic too great. People may well care about free ports and about levelling up. But if they’ve decided that the man who promises them the moon is a liar

then none of that matters. It looks like Big Dog intends to go down fighting. The Tory party now has two choices: move against him now, get the bloodletting over with and start to rebuild

its reputation under a competent leader. Or wait until the full, illustrated, all-singing, all-dancing (!) report comes out and the Met has laid charges. If they choose the latter course,

they should ask themselves: what else is coming down the line? A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important

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