On the brink

He was the Tory saviour of Brexit – but sleaze, ‘partygate’ and Omicron have beset Britain’s PM. Now, many of his own MPs want him gone

- Toby Helm and Michael Savage

On 19 December last year Boris Johnson told Britons more bad news about Covid-19 that would affect the plans of millions at Christmas. Reading from a script that, a year on, seems depressingly familiar, the prime minister said a new strain of Covid-19 (which would become known as the Alpha variant) was taking hold.

“We know enough already to be sure we must act now,” Johnson said. So grave was the situation that the prime minister had convened an urgent meeting of ministers on the Covid operations committee the previous evening to discuss the need for tough and deeply unwelcome new restrictions, including rules that would mean people in tier 4 areas could not mix with anyone outside their household – even on Christmas Day.

On that same Friday evening when Johnson and his ministers met, however, the last thing on the minds of some members of his staff– and a favoured few across Whitehall departments – was a new variant or fresh Covid rules. Instead, they were getting ready for some festive fun in No 10.

In an area occupied by advisers and the prime minister’s press team, through which Johnson and his wife, Carrie, have to pass to get to their flat at the top of the building, several dozen officials gathered over the course of that evening for drinks, nibbles and party games . It appears to have been a blatant breach of rules by people whose day job was to communicate the need for compliance to the nation. But this was the heart of power.