Boris Johnson has always been unfit to be prime minister

Editor's note (June 6th 2022): Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, has announced that the threshold for a vote of confidence in the prime minister has been met. In accordance with the rules, the ballot is to be held later the same day, on the evening of June 6th.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT shared their own and their constituents’ tragic stories: separation from loved ones in their final hours; illnesses suffered in solitude; mourning alone at gravesides. On January 12th, after days of junior ministers being shoved in front of microphones to defend the indefensible, Boris Johnson at last apologised to Parliament. What brought him to this point was the latest in a string of lockdown breaches by the prime minister and his allies: an impromptu party for 40 in the garden of Number 10. It was held on May 20th 2020, when Britons could go out only for essential work and solitary exercise; or to meet just one person, socially distanced and outdoors.