Commentary on Johnson’s withdrawal: The party is over

Johnson’s departure is a victory for democracy over Britain’s declining political culture. And it shows that even a prime minister must not lie to parliament.

Johnson’s political career ends as it began: with brazen lies. In his farewell statement, which is more like the heated tantrum of a five-year-old than that of a former prime minister, Johnson explained his departure as the result of a “witch hunt” called for by anti-Brexit, pro-Europeans and other members of the “establishment”.

None of this is true. He is solely to blame for his case. The parliamentary committee of inquiry, which after months of deliberations has now clearly come to the conclusion that Johnson lied to parliament, consists of a majority of Tories. One of them, Bernard Jenkin, is even an arch-Brexiteer. And even if Johnson leaves open a possible return to politics in his statement, the truth is different. Even if he’ll definitely continue to haunt behind the political stage and occasionally set fire to one or the other backdrop – the party’s over for him. And that’s good.

The last attempt to determine the headlines

The so-called Privileges Committee, the parliamentary investigative committee whose report is expected to be published in the next few days, has restored one of the essential principles of parliamentary democracy, that the parliament must not be lied to, even by its prime minister.

The exact text is not yet known, but it is clear from Johnson’s statement that the report does not let him get off as a minor case. The consequence of such a finding would have been a ten-day expulsion from the House of Commons, followed by a by-election, which he would almost certainly have lost. Johnson’s resignation is nothing more than a last-ditch effort to make the headlines again.

Increasingly decaying political culture

At least in Great Britain he should succeed in the next few days. But that shouldn’t detract from what the Privileges Committee has achieved here: a victory for democracy over Britain’s increasingly deteriorating political culture. Even a prime minister is not allowed to lie to parliament, so the factual truth remains a valuable asset and the crucial foundation for holding politicians accountable in a democracy.

The extraordinarily strong position of the executive in the British parliamentary system has often been criticized in the past, and rightly so. A prime minister with a clear majority can do more or less whatever he wants on the island and, if necessary, even disregard the basic rules of parliament.

Taken to the extreme

Johnson repeatedly took this to the extreme during his time as prime minister, the most extreme case being the illegal suspension of parliament in the middle of the legislative period in 2019 because Johnson did not like his attitude critical of Brexit. But there are checks and balances in the British system. Weeks after overturning Parliament, the Supreme Court reinstated it in the fall of 2019. The current decision of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee is a similarly important event for British political culture in this respect.

It is not surprising that in his statement Johnson angrily insulted this committee as ridiculous and denounced it as an undemocratic “kangaroo court”. He is leaving the political arena exactly as he came: with a lot of noise and full of contempt for the democratic institutions of Great Britain, which he used for a while but just couldn’t completely destroy.