A politician who hates to lose – question is whether Boris Johnson has the appetite and ability to win once more | Beth Rigby
A politician who thrives on drama and attention, Boris Johnson’s bombshell resignation on Friday night was true to form: once again the former prime minister left Westminster reeling, while also throwing in grenades against enemies that will ensure he remains in the spotlight for some time yet.
It was undoubtedly a shock: even one of his closest allies told me a few minutes after his excoriating resignation letter landed, that they had no idea this was coming. It was also vintage Johnson, as the former prime minister unleashed a full frontal attack on the protagonists he believed caused his demise: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the “kangaroo court” privileges committee who Mr Johnson insisted was always going to find him guilty regardless of the evidence.
As with his resignation from No 10, there was not a scrap of contrition or regard for the democratic process that had got him to this place (remember there was a Commons vote that kicked off the inquiry and there’s also a Tory majority on that committee).
Instead there was fury, defiance and the threat of revenge laced through his remarks. He ended his statement saying he was “very sad to be leaving Parliament – at least for now”.
Cue frenzied speculation about whether he might find another seat to come back in before the next general election. Whatever he does now, what is clear is that he’ll be hurling in rocks from the sidelines at a prime minister he’s determined to destroy.
But surveying the scene of Mr Johnson’s bombshell the morning after, the timing of the detonation makes perfect sense.
We knew two things about the former prime minister: he was very focused on getting his resignation honours lists through, and he’d said himself at the privilege committee hearings that he wouldn’t accept the findings if members didn’t find in his favour.
Having received a copy of their report a few days ago, he’d clearly decided to quit rather than suffer the humiliation of being sanctioned and potentially suspended as an MP through a Commons vote. So when his honours list was secured and published, it was time for Mr Johnson to go.
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Tory MP pays tribute to Johnson
We don’t yet know the findings of the committee – due to meet on Monday to decide whether to now expedite the publication of its report – but we do know from Mr Johnson’s furious response that it’s likely MPs determined he had wilfully or recklessly misled the House, and were preparing to recommend a suspension of more than 10 sitting days from the Commons.
We currently only have Mr Johnson’s versions of events, as the former prime minister looked to set the narrative on a report that is almost certainly going to be very damning indeed. We know the privileges committee has received more evidence regarding Mr Johnson, since the initial partygate hearings earlier this year.
Last month, Boris Johnson was referred to police over further potential lockdown breaches by the Cabinet Office, which had been reviewing documents as part of the COVID inquiry. His ministerial diary revealed visits by family and friends to the prime ministerial country retreat Chequers during the pandemic. The information handed to the police was also handed to the privileges committee as part of its investigation. While Mr Johnson’s spokesperson immediately dismissed claims of breaches as a “politically motivated stitch-up”, another figure told me that the evidence is damning and has Mr Johnson “bang to rights”.
“There was an expectation that MPs would try to avoid the highest sanction, that they have gone there means it must be pretty bad,” says one Whitehall figure, who believes that the privileges committee has been unanimous in its verdict against him (we won’t know that for sure until the report is out).
The big question on my mind now is whether Mr Johnson will – or can – stage a comeback, and to what extent he’ll be able to disrupt his political nemesis Mr Sunak from outside the tent.
When it comes to the former question, the former prime minister has clearly decided not to box himself in and there is a big chunk of the activist base, as well as the parliamentary base, that are Mr Johnson backers.
But it’s equally true that this close to an election, Conservative MPs don’t want to stoke division – with a nod to the old adage that divided parties don’t win elections.
His most loyal backers on Friday night rode out on Twitter and TV screens to denounce the privileges committee, rather than amplify further Mr Johnson’s pointed criticisms about Mr Sunak and his government.
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Rayner: ‘Good riddance’ to Johnson
For its part, the Number 10 team were relieved when Mr Johnson failed to lead a huge rebellion and don’t believe he had anything near the potency he once had. “We’re in a period where Rishi is doing well restoring trust after a period of distress,” is how one figure close to the PM put it to me. “I don’t think the mood in the party is pitch forks.”
That’s not to say Number 10 isn’t worried by an unleashed and furious Mr Johnson determined to settle scores, but, as another person put it: “He is one man, the party is more than that and we sometimes lose sight of that in the Johnson circus.”
But the criticisms Mr Johnson has levelled at Mr Sunak – justified or not – are potent. There’s the criticism of Mr Sunak’s handling of Brexit and failure to get a UK-US free trade deal, to his call for lower taxes and bemoaning the lack of political momentum going into an election.
Those in government might remark in exasperation that the relationship between Mr Johnson and President Biden meant a free trade deal is something he’d never had been able to do, but that doesn’t matter much – what matters is that these dog whistles rally a base in the party frustrated by the new regime. He already has in the new grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation, a movement which he could lead.
What he’ll do next, we don’t know. But the signs are that he intends, with his allies, to be a political menace. A third by-election was triggered on Saturday after another key Johnson backer Nigel Adams announced he too was quitting Westminster with immediate effect. That on top of the two sparked by Mr Johnson and that of his closest political ally Nadine Dorries are the last thing his successor needs. Lose them, and it all feeds into the narrative that Mr Sunak is a busted flush.
Read more:
Boris Johnson stands down as MP with immediate effect
Johnson ally Nigel Adams to stand down as MP triggering third by-election
There are obvious questions as to whether Mr Johnson will try to stand in Ms Dorries’ mid-Beds seat, where the Conservatives are defending a 24,000 majority, or return to another safe seat before the next election (there were plenty of rumours before all of this that Mr Johnson was on the look out for a safer seat than Uxbridge and South Ruislip).
He could equally return to writing a newspaper column or editorship. What’s clear from his resignation statement is that he still intends to hold the spotlight whether Mr Sunak likes it or not.
Those around him tell me Mr Johnson shouldn’t be written off and feels deeply aggrieved by what he sees as a campaign within No 10 and the cabinet office to defenestrate him, with briefings against him in the run-up to the publication of the privileges committee report and then vote in Commons. His camp believe fervently that Mr Sunak is trying to drive them from parliament and the party: they are defiant and this, if you like, is the beginning of a fight back. I’m told more resignations are likely.
For the current regime, Mr Johnson’s attack gives voice to those supporters angry that – in the words of one – Mr Sunak is unpicking the 2019 manifesto despite having neither a mandate from he public or party members. For many Conservatives, it is Mr Johnson who has the box office appeal and ability to connect with voters in a way that Mr Sunak does not. Those loyal to him are ready to rally should he mount an attempt to return to parliament.
There are detractors who say Mr Johnson is done, that the partygate scandal has damaged his standing with the public and the party beyond repair.
A snap poll out today by YouGov found that nearly three in four Britons believe Mr Johnson committed further breaches of COVID rules than those he’s already been investigated and fined for.
In some ways, the easier thing for Mr Johnson to do was make this resignation the concluding chapter of his political life. But instead he’s chosen to leave the door open to a sequel.
A politician who above all hates to lose, the question is, after all that’s passed, whether he still has the appetite – and ability – to try once more to win. Never rule him out.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
It follows a months-long trial in the country that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The former leader, exiled in India, was tried in absentia after the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the violence.
Bangladesh’s health adviser under the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.
The students initially started protesting over the way government jobs were being allocated, but clashes with police and pro-government activists quickly escalated into violence.
The court revealed conversations of Hasina directing security officers to drop bombs from helicopters on the protesters.
She also permitted the use of lethal weapons, including shotguns at close range for maximum harm, the court was told.
Hasina, who previously called the tribunal a “kangaroo court”, fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising, ending 15 years of rule.
In a statement released after the verdict, Hasina said the ruling was “biased and politically motivated” and “neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters”.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she added.
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August 2024: Protesters celebrate Sheikh Hasina’s resignation
The 78-year-old is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered its four-hour verdict amid tight security.
Hasina received a life sentence under charges for crimes against humanity and the death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.
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What was behind the protests?
The packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the sentence was read out.
The tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan – also exiled in India – to death.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.
The ruling is the most dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader since independence in 1971 and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in February.
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July 2024: Bangladesh protest has ‘become a war’
Foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh have called on India to hand over the former prime minister, adding it was obligated to do so under an existing treaty between the two nations. India has not yet made any response.
Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country, while the interim government warned any attempt to create disorder will be “strictly” dealt with.
It comes after Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown as part of a protest against the verdict.
The mood in the country had been described as tense ahead of Monday’s ruling.
The protests escalated during the summer of 2024. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles were set on fire across Bangladesh during the past few days.
Local media said two people were killed in the arson attacks, according to the Associated Press.
Hasina is also the aunt of former UK government minister, Tulip Saddiq, who resigned from her Treasury job at the start of this year.
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Ms Siddiq had faced calls to step down over links to her aunt and was also said to be facing a corruption trial in Bangladesh.
She told Sky News in August the accusations were “nothing more than a farce” and said she had never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.
Sky News has seen multiple warehouses in the Jordanian capital Amman, packed full of critical aid earmarked for the Gaza Strip.
There are three other similar locations in the country and run by the Jordanian authorities holding aid intended for Gaza.
There are also large amounts of aid being stored separately by the United Nations in Jordan.
Both the Jordanian authorities and the UN say the majority of aid collected has been sitting in Jordan since March, with only a negligible amount of aid being allowed into Gaza because of Israeli restrictions on aid going into the Strip.
The news comes as tens of thousands of families living in tents in Gaza have been affected by flooding following heavy rains across the region.
The stored aid is equivalent to thousands of trucks’ worth of aid – in Jordan alone.
And the United Nations says there’s even more aid being held back in Egypt too – in total, enough aid to provide food for the entire Gaza population for about three months, according to the deputy commissioner general for UNRWA, Natalie Boucly, who was interviewed by The Guardian.
Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in Amman, said: “The aid in Jordan alone includes critical supplies such as tents and tarpaulins as well as blankets, mattresses, medicines like paracetamol as well as baby formula… all being stored here and held back, according to the UN here in Jordan and the Jordanian authorities, all being refused entry by the Israelis.”
What has UNICEF said?
The UN aid agency for children has called on Israel to allow all of its supplies into Gaza.
Writing on X, UNICEF said it had already distributed more than 5,000 tents, 220,000 tarps and 29,000 winter clothes kits.
The Israeli defence body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, has said it is allowing in winter materials including blankets and tarps, which are water-resistant sheets made of canvas or plastic used for protection from the elements.
But aid organisations have warned the efforts are completely inadequate and vastly outnumbered by those in need – an estimated 1.4 million people are classified as vulnerable by aid agencies.
In contrast, on X, COGAT said it had “facilitated close to 140,000 tarpaulins directly to the residents of the Gaza Strip” and had spent the past few months coordinating with the international community.
It went on: “We call on international organisations to coordinate more tents and tarpaulins and other winter humanitarian responses.”
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But the UN insists Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law and has the responsibility as the occupying force to ensure the safe distribution and coordination of life-saving aid.
What does the Israeli military say?
An Israeli military official told Sky News that aid was stopped from Jordan after the main border crossing with Israel was closed following an attack there in September, which saw a Jordanian truck driver kill two Israeli soldiers.
Although both Jordanian officials and UN figures in the country say hardly any aid – a “negligible” amount – was allowed into Gaza from Jordan many months before this, dating back to March.
The Israeli military official said the crossing will not be opened until an investigation is concluded into the incident. They pointed out that there are other routes for aid to enter Gaza along the Egypt border, and hundreds of trucks enter the strip every day under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
However, the UN and multiple aid organisations say this is a fraction of what is required to meet the huge need inside Gaza and there are thousands of trucks’ worth of aid also piled up and waiting to be allowed over from Egypt too.
Meanwhile, in the sprawling Muwasi tent camp in Gaza, winter’s first strong rainfall sent water cascading through the flimsy tents, which are now homes to tens of thousands of displaced families.
Residents tried to dig trenches to keep the water from flooding their tents, as intermittent rains that began on Friday poured through tears in tarpaulins and makeshift shelters.
A Palestinian child walks through the rain in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City. Pic: AP
‘Water puddles are inches high’
Assil Naggar said he “spent all (Friday) pushing water out of my tent”, adding his neighbours’ tents and belongings were wrecked.
“Water puddles are inches high, and there is no proper drainage,” he continued.
Tents used by displaced Palestinians, on a rainy day in the central Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
The UN said Muwasi was sheltering up to 425,000 displaced Palestinians earlier this year, the vast majority in makeshift temporary tents, after Israel’s war with Hamas displaced most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people.
The bulk of Gaza’s infrastructure is estimated to have been destroyed or badly damaged during the Israeli bombardment.
What’s the latest with the ceasefire?
The first stage of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on 10 October, is now nearing its end with Israeli forces pulling back to a ‘yellow line’ and Hamas releasing all living Israeli captives who were held in Gaza.
Hamas has yet to return the remains of three more hostages, which Israel is demanding before progressing to the second stage, which includes an international stabilisation force to oversee security in Gaza.
On Monday, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a US proposal for a UN mandate for such a force despite opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has gone on for more than two years, killing nearly 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian territory’s ministry of health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military campaign came in response to attacks inside southern Israel by Hamas militants on October 7 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.
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