Can Boris Johnson’s month get any worse? Plagued by mutinous backbenchers, Omicron variants and Pippa Crerar, the beleaguered PM’s unhappy double-act of doom tonight with Chris Whitty will have done little to lift the gloom around No. 10. The consensus among Tory MPs appears to be that the Christmas recess has saved their leader. Most now expect him to lead them through the winter when he can (hopefully) reset his flatlining premiership, once again.
But all that could change by Friday morning, depending on how the North Shropshire by-election goes. The Tory safe seat, which returned Owen Paterson last time by a majority of more than 22,000, is regarded by the bookies as ‘too close to call’ with both the Conservatives and the third-placed Lib Dems on 10/11 with Ladbrokes. With Labour roaring into an eight-point lead in the polls and Sir Keir Starmer finally overtaking Johnson on ‘best PM,’ a win in true blue Tory heartland would give further ammunition to the latter’s critics within his party.
Paterson himself has largely stayed out of the limelight, following his resignation over the botched efforts to overhaul the standards system in the Commons.
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