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LONDON , Dec 15 (AP) \u2014 Behind a heavy oak door in Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson implored Conservative lawmakers to back him by voting for new restrictions to help slow the fast-spreading omicron variant.<\/p>\n
The lawmakers cheered Johnson \u2014 yet almost 100 defied him, voting in the House of Commons against requiring vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded venues. The rebellion didn\u2019t defeat the measure, which was approved with opposition support and took effect Wednesday. But it could have big implications for Johnson\u2019s political future and for Britain\u2019s pandemic response.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very clear message that colleagues are not happy with how the government is operating at the moment,\u201d Mark Harper, one of the rebels, told Times Radio. \u201cThe team captain should be able to depend on the loyalty of the team, but it\u2019s a two-way street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s rebellion by 98 Conservative lawmakers on vaccine certificates was by far the biggest of Johnson\u2019s premiership, and an echo of the serial revolts that ousted his predecessor, Theresa May. More than 60 Tory legislators also voted against mandating vaccinations for all health care workers.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s government argues that the restrictions are needed to confront the \u201cgrave threat\u201d from the highly transmissible omicron variant, which is spreading so quickly it could overwhelm Britain\u2019s hospitals even if it is less severe than previous strains.<\/p>\n
Some on the party\u2019s right wing don\u2019t believe the dire warnings, and don\u2019t like the \u201cnanny state\u201d measures the pandemic has brought. In Tuesday\u2019s vote, they were joined by others wanting to send a warning to a prime minister whose approval ratings have plummeted amid policy U-turns and ethics scandals.<\/p>\n
Any further coronavirus restrictions look certain to face strong resistance from Conservatives, leaving Johnson reliant on the opposition to get them approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prime minister is so weak that without Labour votes last night, vital public health measures wouldn\u2019t have got through,\u201d Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Wednesday during Prime Minister\u2019s Questions in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis MPs are wrong to vote against basic health measures, but they are not wrong to distrust him,\u201d Starmer added.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives chose Johnson as their leader in 2019 because the blustering, Latin-spouting former London mayor was anything but a typical politician. He\u2019d been fired from a party job for lying, used racist and offensive language in columns and quips \u2014 but he was upbeat, entertaining and a hit with voters.<\/p>\n
Johnson promised to \u201cget Brexit done\u201d after three years of gridlock over Britain\u2019s departure from the European Union. He won a big victory in the December 2019 election by winning over voters in England\u2019s \u201cred wall,\u201d a belt of former industrial towns that had long been Labour strongholds.<\/p>\n
The pandemic knocked Johnson off course. His initial reluctance to impose a nationwide lockdown in early 2020 helped give the U.K. the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe apart from Russia, with more than 146,000 deaths.<\/p>\n
A successful vaccination program helped Johnson recover some of his authority, but a slew of damaging allegations has tarnished him.<\/p>\n
First there was an expensive refurbishment of the prime minister\u2019s official Downing Street apartment, funded by a Conservative donor. Johnson was cleared of wrongdoing over the \u201ccash for curtains\u201d affair, but the party was fined by Britain\u2019s political regulator.<\/p>\n
Then the government faced charges of cronyism when it tried to block the suspension of Owen Paterson, a Conservative lawmaker found to have broken lobbying rules.<\/p>\n
Most damaging are allegations that staff in Johnson\u2019s office flouted coronavirus rules with lockdown-breaching Christmas parties last year, when others were banned from gathering. Johnson has ordered an inquiry, but insists he personally broke no rules.<\/p>\n
It all adds up to a dangerous moment for Johnson.<\/p>\n
Starmer is working to restore Labour\u2019s fortunes after the party suffered four consecutive election defeats, and it has recently opened up a lead in opinion polls.<\/p>\n
Danny Finkelstein, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, said Conservative lawmakers\u2019 \u201clarge-scale open rebellion against government policy on the most important question of the day\u201d amounted to a vote of no-confidence in the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long can such a position endure?\u201d he asked in the Times of London.<\/p>\n
A special election on Thursday for the North Shropshire parliamentary seat, formerly held by lobbying-scandal lawmaker Paterson, could add to Conservative jitters. Polls suggest the opposition Liberal Democrats have a chance of winning what has long been a staunchly Conservative district.<\/p>\n
Britain is not scheduled to hold a national election until 2024, so Johnson may have time to recover. His popularity could rise if the omicron wave washing over the U.K. is not as bad as many fear, and Johnson meets his goal of offering all adults a booster vaccine by New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
But the Conservatives have a long history of dumping leaders they consider liabilities. Several ministers \u2014 notably Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss \u2014 are already being discussed as possible replacements.<\/p>\n
Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government think-tank, said Johnson \u201clooks much weakened, but it\u2019s not clear to me if he is fatally weakened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe still has some quite biggish advantages, particularly if you\u2019re a red wall Conservative looking at who can get people to turn out for the Conservatives again,\u201d she said. \u201cIs Liz Truss, is Rishi Sunak, really going to bring them flocking to the ballot boxes in the way that Johnson\u2019s star quality does? That\u2019s not so clear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON , Dec 15 (AP) \u2014 Behind a heavy oak door in Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson implored Conservative lawmakers to back him by voting for new restrictions to help slow the fast-spreading omicron variant. The lawmakers cheered Johnson \u2014 yet almost 100 defied him, voting in the House of Commons against requiring vaccine passports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-179411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}