Kevin Maguire says Boris Johnson’s lies and broken promises mean the country should take action when it’s time to vote for a new leader, even if the Tories are still ahead in the polls
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Breaking promises and lying are Boris Johnson trademarks, as MPs and former wives alike can well attest.
Increasing National Insurance to fund social care and suspending the state pension triple lock so the elderly are paid less are another two 2019 manifesto pledges to be shredded by the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Abandoned promises stretch from the lousy Brexit deal deepening rifts in a Disunited Kingdom to scything international aid, strip his authority to rule when an 80-seat majority was fraudulently secured.
Covid was unexpected, but not so the behaviour of a charlatan who treats the public with contempt and is incapable of keeping his word.
Using the virus as a smokescreen to short-change pensioners here and the world’s most wretched around the globe is Tory charity that neither starts nor ends at home.
And now we can clearly see the chicanery and incompetence of a PM who tricked his way into No10 with Brexit fibs, surely the principled case for holding an early General Election is overwhelming.
Voters would be more aware than ever as Johnson snatches £20 a week from millions of breadline families, underlining why he is temperamentally and ideologically incapable of building Britain back better.
Johnson argues that the costs and deaths of Covid are why he won’t stick to his 2019 election programme.
Yet those costs and deaths were increased by his mistakes – and so the trickster inadvertently echoes the case for an early poll to allow people to choose who and what they want to happen next.
Dozens – no, scores – of questions require answers. Such as whether soaring NHS waiting lists, already topping a record 5million in England alone, will stretch, as predicted, unless an emergency £10billion is invested now.
Tory MPs believe Johnson favours a 2023 election rather than waiting until the 2024 limit of this Parliament. By axing the Fixed Term Parliament Act, he’d be able to spring a snap contest of his choosing without approval of two thirds of MPs.
But while Covid widens inequality and hapless Johnson misrules without a mandate, we can’t wait that long.
Brenda from Bristol may object, yet a fresh election is required if a Government – any Government – is to enjoy legitimacy.
The Tories are ahead in the polls and Keir Starmer and Labour would start as the underdogs.
But the country is entitled to decide the direction in which we head.
