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On Thursday morning, the front pages of the major British newspapers made Boris Johnson uncomfortable breakfast reading.
"Interior Resign", with this line "Metro" gave the premier a verbal blow because of the possibly illegally financed refurbishment of his official apartment.
"Nervous Downing Street fears evidence," the Times said, alluding to alleged evidence of undeclared donations.
These days, Westminster is once again like a wasp's nest in which the prime minister, notorious for his antics, stumbles.
Constant briefings and counter-briefings, a permanent who-knew-and-said-what gives the administrative district the heated atmosphere of the old days.
Will the concentrated attacks by the media and the opposition actually make Johnson nervous?
Probably not for the moment.
Because at the same time, the latest poll came out before the regional and local elections, which are due next Thursday.
They are the first major test for the Tory boss since his election triumph in December 2019.
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Despite the corruption allegations against the prime minister, according to a BMG survey, his conservatives are clearly ahead of the Labor party.
In terms of popularity, Johnson has a whopping 16 points clear of his rival Keir Starmer, the head of Labor.
For "the people out there"
If these polls are also reflected in the election results next Thursday, they would be renewed evidence of Johnson's successful strategy of repelling any attacks by the “London establishment” and instead giving his full attention to the “people out there”.
A strategy that Johnson adopted from his ex-advisor Dominic Cummings.
Cummings led the successful 2016 Brexit campaign that cemented Johnson's rise to power.
Once on Downing Street, the team operated a brutal policy.
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Remember the expulsion of rebel group colleagues or the confrontation with the Supreme Court about a forced break in parliament.
All with success, as Johnson's lavish majority in the general election at the end of 2019 proved.
On Wednesday, the head of government reintroduced his “us against the elite” strategy at the “Prime Minister's Questions”.
It got so loud that “we got a glimpse of Johnson's almonds that normally only his dental hygienist has.
His tonsils practically shot past his incisors and danced a can-can on the desk in front of him, "says the Times columnist, describing the prime minister's outburst.
The volume in the lower house, still sparsely occupied due to corona regulations, was reminiscent of times before the pandemic.
Johnson swung his right hand 17 times, pointing his index finger at Starmer like the barrel of a pistol.
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While the opposition is only practicing a blockade, his government delivers: more medical staff, more police officers and of course more vaccines - “which we were able to issue so quickly thanks to Brexit” and “thanks to our exit from the European Medicines Agency, which he is trying to block Has!"
Starmer may be happy that a plexiglass pane installed between the prime minister and the opposition chief catches any aerosols and that the lower house staff thoroughly rubs the "dispatch box" with an antiviral cleaner after each appearance.
Despite all the good surveys, Johnson and his team face a serious challenge.
Until the middle of the week, the prime minister was able to dismiss the accumulating allegations as a desperate attempt by his opponents to get off the defensive.
But now the electoral commission responsible for monitoring party and election funding has announced an official investigation.
There was a sufficient basis for examining whether the renovation of the apartment at 11 Downing Street was improperly funded.
The mass newspaper “Daily Mail” had already revealed weeks ago that Johnson's fiancée Carrie Symonds had the official residence in the heart of Westminster remodeled for a total of 230,000 euros by a designer coveted in the London jet set.
The annual expense for the maintenance of the premier apartment is set at the equivalent of 35,000 euros.
"The costs are getting completely out of hand - she is ordering gold wallpaper!", Johnson is said to have complained to his advisors in early 2020, shortly after moving into the residence.
Said wallpapers by designer Lulu Lytle are indeed not an Ikea budget at thousands of euros per roll.
A wealthy Tory supporter allegedly gave Johnson an advance of £ 58,000, which, contrary to the rules of the election commission, was probably not reported.
The whole affair has meanwhile been given the title "Wallpaper Gate" based on Richard Nixon's Watergate.
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According to the statutes, a British prime minister earns the equivalent of around 170,000 euros a year.
Financially a descent.
As a columnist for the Daily Telegraph alone, Johnson received almost € 220,000, plus his income as a member of parliament and from engagements as a speaker.
In addition to a new apartment, new partner and new child, the divorce from his second wife Marina Wheeler last year, with whom Johnson was married for 25 years, is said to have not been cheap.
They also have four children, some of whom are still in training.
The Daily Telegraph, loyal to the prime minister and his long-time employer, even drew a comparison with Johnson's idol Winston Churchill.
As is well known, because of his demanding lifestyle, he too had to repeatedly pump generous friends for money.
"There is nothing to see here and nothing to worry about," Johnson insisted on Thursday morning while visiting a London school.
In tow he had the popular Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who, like other cabinet members, has made public gestures of loyalty over the past few days.
Nervous about Cummings' statement
“I prefer to concentrate on the things that are really important,” the prime minister countered when asked what conclusions he could draw from a negative result of the election authority's examination.
Until this is available, Johnson is facing another event, which will then trigger nervousness.
At the end of May, Chief Advisor Cummings, who was fired by Johnson in November, testified before a parliamentary committee on corona management early last year.
At the end of last week, Cummings suddenly stated on a blog that he had warned Johnson about potentially illegal donations for the renovation at the time.
Cummings' comment appeared to be in response to being named in several newspapers the day before as a puller for internal piercing.
Now Cummings is “urgently” calling for an investigation into the Covid management of Johnson's government. Johnson traded “well below” the standards of “competence” that “the country deserves”. He, Cummings, has ample evidence to offer. With which the man to whom Johnson owes his power could become a real threat to that power.