• UK Boris Johnson Slumps in Polls

A total of 98 Conservative MPs voted against the introduction of the Covid passport in the United Kingdom, in the largest insurrection in their own ranks experienced by Boris Johnson since he came to power two and a half years ago. The 'premier' finally achieved parliamentary support for his plan (by 369 votes to 126), thanks to the backing of the Labor opposition, but the humiliation suffered at the hands of his co-religionists has meant a harsh political punishment, with his leadership on the rope lazy from the "Partygate" scandal.

Analysts compare the setback suffered by Johnson with that experienced in October 2011 by

David Cameron,

when 81 'Tory' deputies voted in favor of holding the EU exit referendum. More than twenty former members of the Government and parliamentarians so far loyal to the 'premier'

closed ranks with representatives of the hard wing to boycott the most controversial points of the so-called "Plan B",

which includes the implementation of the Covid passport to enter nightclubs and in football stadiums.

"Everybody needs to recognize two things: that

the omicron variant is a severe public health risk and that it is spreading very fast,"

Johnson said in the lead-up to the debate at Westminstter.

"

The 'premier' even intervened in a heated meeting of the 1922 parliamentary committee to try to quell the internal rebellion on the grounds that "there is no room for complacency."

His intervention fell on deaf ears and

more than a quarter of the 361 "Tory" deputies rebelled against their leader,

who saved the guy thanks to the support of the leader of the Labor opposition Keir Starmer, who announced the vote in favor of Covid's new restrictions "out of patriotic duty" (eight Labor members also voted against it, as did a dozen Liberal Democrats).

The tense parliamentary session, related to the Brexit marathons, was marked from the outset by the

absences of several deputies who had tested "positive" hours earlier.

Among them, the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and three members of the Labor "shadow" cabinet: Rachel Reeves, Bridger Phillipson and Jim McMahon.

The Secretary of Health, Sajid Javid, sounded the alarm at the start of the debate, reporting the record of daily cases since January, 59,610. Although

4,713 cases of the omicron variant

have been confirmed to date

,

Javid warned that experts estimate that there could already be more than 200,000 cases and doubling every other day.

Javid defended the new measures as "the first line of defense" to protect the National Health Service (NHS) and called for a vote in favor of mandatory vaccination of healthcare personnel. "This mandate is not going to be extended to other sectors," he warned.

"We are not really implementing a Covid passport;

people will continue to access nightclubs and stadiums showing a negative antigen test."

One hundred deputies also voted in the end against the mandatory vaccination for health personnel and 41 against the mandatory use of the mask in cinemas and theaters.

The greatest resistance was, however, the one shown against the requirement of a Covid pass (either demonstrating double vaccination or exhibiting a negative antigen test) to be able to access discos and stadiums from Wednesday.

One of the first to rebel was Andrea Leadsom, a former Environment Secretary and ally of Boris Johnson during the Brexit campaign.

"We are facing an intrusive and inconsistent set of regulations,"

said Leadsom, joined by other former Cabinet members like David Davis, Liam Fox and Esther McVey.

Steve Baker, head of the Brexit "Spartans" who led to the fall of

Theresa May,

accused Boris Johnson of "creating a miserable dystopia" since the Covid started and accused him of amplifying the threat of the variant omicron to implement Plan B, which also includes the

recommendation to work from home and the mandatory use of masks in cinemas and theaters.

The vote on the new measures was divided into three precisely to dilute the opposition of the 'Tories' deputies, who especially launched their invectives against the plans for the introduction of the Covid passport for domestic use.

"We are segregating society based on something unacceptable," warned Marcus Fysh, the most irate voice in the party's libertarian wing.

"We are not in a society that asks for papers ... This is not Nazi Germany.

This is the last wedge of an authoritarian turn and that is why we resist."

Fysh was condemned by various sectors of the party for the choice of his words, amplified by the BBC.

The British Jewish Board of Delegates condemned his remarks as "completely unacceptable".

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and 1922 parliamentary committee chairman Graham Brady were two others who joined the rebellion, which served to demonstrate the

atmosphere of growing acrimony towards their own leader.

Boris Johnson will appear precisely on Wednesday before the parliamentary committee, in what

is expected to be a meeting especially heated by the latest scandals.

The real litmus test for Johnson in his most critical week in Downing Street, however, will come on Thursday, with a

special election in North Shropshire

to fill the vacancy left by his "protégé" Owen Paterson, who resigned a month ago over the scandal. the corruption.

The Conservative Party has historically controlled that seat for more than a century and achieved a 23,000 advantage over the rest of the political forces in the last elections.

The liberal-democrat candidate Helen Morgan is nevertheless ahead in the polls, benefiting from the tactical vote and the "anti Johnson" sentiment after the latest scandals.

The 'premier' has hopes placed on the local pull of the conservative candidate, Neil Shastri-Hurst, who last week acknowledged: "I have been in worse situations ... Like when Boris Johnson made a mistake with my last name."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Boris johnson

  • Coronavirus

  • Omicron variant

  • Germany

  • David cameron

  • Brexit

  • United Kingdom

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