Boris Johnson has had many gaffes as Prime Minister (Image: AFP/PA/AP/SWNS/Reuters)
Boris Johnson’s reign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will soon come to an end, to the joy of some and the dismay of others.
During his tenure at the helm, regardless of what you think of Mr Johnson, his time has been plagued with controversy, gaffes and sometimes outright stupidity.
Despite trying to hang on for as long as possible, he was forced to resign as leader of the Conservative party and will step down as prime minister in the autumn.
Speaking at the time, Mr Johnson pledged to give the next Tory leader “as much support as I can”, adding: “I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but these are the breaks. .’
From Partygate, to his handling of the Covid pandemic, to the Chris Pincher revelations, we take a look back at some of Mr. Johnson and what ultimately led to his downfall.
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Bringing the Queen into an important constitutional row
Mr Johnson got off to a dubious start as Prime Minister when he was found to have lied to Her Majesty the Queen.
Lying would soon become a familiar theme of the Johnson administration with this first lie certainly living up to it.
His Brexit deal wasn’t exactly ‘ready for the oven’ (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
He managed to draw the Queen into a major constitutional row over the illegal extension of Parliament to approve her Brexit deal.
Johnson remarked that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than extend the Brexit deadline yet again.
He won the 2019 general election with the mandate to ‘Make Brexit happen’.
The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Johnson’s advice to the Queen to prorogue parliament for five weeks at the height of the Brexit crisis was illegal.
Key Cobra meetings missing ahead of Covid pandemic
Mr Johnson was busy shaking hands with Covid patients in hospitals (Image: PA)
Another major drawback of Mr Johnson’s first term in office was his early denial about the severity of the Covid pandemic.
As the world began to accept the severity of the Covid pandemic, Mr Johnson sat back and did not attend key Cobra meetings.
Instead, he bragged about shaking hands with patients suffering from the coronavirus in a hospital.
But he soon caught Covid and suffered minor symptoms that quickly turned into a hospital admission with doctors trying to save his life.
As the scale of the pandemic quickly became apparent, the government, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the time, was slow to prevent deaths in care homes.
He was accused of saying he preferred to “let the bodies pile up” before taking any action.
Her Peppa Pig rant
The Prime Minister was spotted at Peppa Pig World (Image: George Bell/SWNS)
Another odd moment was when Mr Johnson talked about the world of Peppa Pig and pretended it was a car during a CBI keynote speech.
He arguably made a pig’s ear of the speech when he praised the theme park and made “vroom vroom” engine noises, prompting a reporter to ask if “everything is OK.”
During the talk, he muttered “excuse me” up to three times as papers could be heard flapping in the background as the audience sat in awkward silence for about 30 seconds.
The Prime Minister was forced to defend his position as the reporter asked: “You’ve lost your grades, you’ve lost your place, you’ve gone off on a tangent about Peppa Pig, frankly, is everything okay?”
But he insisted: “I thought it went well.”
His defense of MP Owen Patterson
Owen Paterson stepped into the spotlight (Image: AP)
He was criticized when he defended the then Tory MP Owen Paterson.
Paterson repeatedly broke lobbying rules and resigned from the House of Commons on 5 November 2021.
He later admitted that he “crashed the car” in his handling of the case.
Party door
Partygate was a major scandal for the Prime Minister (Image: AP)
Reports began to accumulate that party meetings had been happening at No. 10 during the pandemic.
This despite the strict social distancing rules that were in place in the UK at the time.
It got worse because the Prime Minister said all the rules were followed and the parties were simply “work events”.
But the Metropolitan Police didn’t like it at all and Boris Johnson received several fines from the police for the lockdown parties.
These fines made him the first prime minister in British history to break the law while serving the country.
The vote of confidence
Mr Johnson’s political integrity was damaged after the confidence vote (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Many of his own Conservative MPs began to feel angry with the Prime Minister, and many MPs called for a vote of confidence in his leadership.
He survived the vote of confidence, but came out of the vote badly damaged.
The prime minister won the vote 211-148, a victory that secured his place in Downing Street but by no means ended the political gaffes that defined his premiership.
Getting booed at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
The shenanigans could be heard throughout the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations (Image: AP)
Another very embarrassing moment for Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie was when they were both booed at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The public booing was a reflection of the sentiment felt towards him and the administration after the partygate scandal.
It was a hint that this was the beginning of the end for Mr. Johnson.
Chris Pincher sexual allegations
Chris Pincher’s sexual assault allegations eventually brought down the Prime Minister (Image: PA)
The Chris Pincher scandal was the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson, leading to a spate of ministerial resignations and ultimately his downfall.
The end was in sight when it was learned that the Prime Minister knew about allegations of sexual assault against Mr Pincher before he was promoted to deputy director.
Johnson then lied to everyone about having this knowledge before Number 10 admitted that he did in fact know about the scandal.
He faced more than 50 resignations from his government in just 48 hours, the most in British political history, and was forced to resign.
Johnson will become one of the shortest prime ministers in British history.
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