This latest scandal, over a deputy whip in Parliament accused of sexual misconduct, is just one of a series of self-inflicted problems that have plagued Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government. His response to it — his original claim that he had not been aware of any formal complaints against the official, Chris Pincher — was followed by a series of painful revelations and finally by the admission that in fact he had known all along — was textbook Johnson. The prime minister's blueprint for dealing with a crisis almost never begins, and rarely ends with simply telling the truth, he says. Instead, he tends to start with a denial, move through several interim admissions in which his previous falsehoods are recast as honorable efforts at transparency, and then end with a great show of remorse in which he appears to take responsibility for what happened, while suggesting that it was not his fault.
How Mr. Johnson weathered the scandal before this one, over boozy parties held at No. 10 Downing Street and other government offices were in violation of the strict Covid lockdown rules his government had imposed on the rest of the country. Like a defense lawyer keeping his options open in court, Mr. Johnson made a series of contradictory statements to explain Partygate as it was called.
Those were meetings of people at work when pictures of the first party emerged, he said. This is where I live and it is where I work. There were meetings of people at work talking about work. When it became clear that there had been a second party in the garden and that he had attended, Johnson spokesman said first that the prime minister had not been told in advance that a gathering would take place. Johnson said that he had known about the party, but he mistakenly thought it was a work event. The prime minister declared that he had stayed for only 25 minutes, echoed Bill Clinton's famous I didn't inhale explanation when accused of smoking weed while in Oxford. He said that nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules. When I went out into the garden, I thought I was at a work event. Evidence of myriad other parties began pouring into the newspapers so thick and fast that it began to appear as if not a day had gone by when the staff at No. 10 was not partying into the night. There was one in which Mr. Johnson was photographed with staff, draped in tinsel and wearing a Santa hat, and another that turned out to be a birthday party held for him, with a cake.
Johnson continued to repeat that he knew nothing about anything, that if he had known he would not have gone, that people had to work and sometimes they did it when wine was present, and that, as far as he knew, no rules were broken. He was fined for breaching Covid's regulations, along with his wife and 81 other people, after the police opened an investigation into 12 of the parties. Johnson then shifted into full contrition mode and appeared to believe correctly, as it turned out that his apology would be enough to get him through the latest rough patch. After new details emerged of a seven-hour party in Downing Street the night before the funeral for Duke of Edinburgh, a funeral at which his widow, the Queen, sat by herself because of Covid restrictions, Johnson said he was very sorry. "I deeply regret that happened, and I deeply regret that happened," Johnson told the House of Commons. He said that I can only renew my apologies to Her Majesty and the country for misjudgments that were made, and for which I take full responsibility.