Officials Deliberated on Expressing Concerns About Former Prime Minister to the Queen, Boris Johnson
Officials Deliberated on Expressing Concerns About Former Prime Minister to the Queen, Boris Johnson
“During the peak of the pandemic, senior government officials reportedly communicated with Buckingham Palace to voice their apprehensions regarding Boris Johnson’s performance in office, according to information received by the BBC.”
Officials contemplated the possibility of proposing to the Queen that she address these concerns with Mr. Johnson during their private audiences.
This revelation is disclosed in the second episode of the BBC documentary series titled “Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos.”
The documentary delves into the upheaval within Westminster and Whitehall over a span of four years.
Drawing from interviews with pivotal figures in the upper echelons of government, the series encompasses the time frame spanning from 2016 to the conclusion of Liz Truss’s tenure as prime minister in 2022.
In May 2020, while the government was contending with the pandemic, notable tensions emerged between Mr. Johnson’s political team and the Civil Service.
Presently, sources have disclosed that senior officials voiced their apprehensions about the former prime minister’s governance to Buckingham Palace.
Several conflicts arose between Dominic Cummings, the former prime minister’s contentious chief of staff, and Sir Mark Sedwill, the former head of the Civil Service, who subsequently departed from his position.
It is known that officials conveyed their concerns to the Palace with the expectation that the Queen might address these worries during her private discussions.
It is understood that there were numerous phone calls and communications that went beyond the usual routine exchanges between Number 10 and the Palace.
According to one source, the then-prime minister “needed a reminder about the constitution.”
Another source characterized the ambiance in Downing Street during that timeframe as “profoundly bleak and incredibly chaotic,” asserting that relationships had become “extremely hostile,” and the connections between Mr. Johnson’s team and the Civil Service had “deteriorated significantly.”
Concerns had already arisen at Buckingham Palace regarding the conduct of Mr. Johnson’s government following the closure of the Commons the previous summer, known as the “prorogation” in 2019, which had been technically executed by the Queen.
The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that this action had violated the law. A source informed the BBC that this development had raised “significant concern.”
During her appearance in the documentary, former Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara declined to engage in conversation regarding the calls made to Buckingham Palace.
“There were certainly occasions following the prime minister’s recovery from his illness (he contracted Covid and required hospital treatment) when the perception among the political team at Number 10 regarding the shortcomings of the system, the Civil Service, and various institutions became extremely intense. Their articulation of this sentiment was so extreme that it seemed as though they were advocating for a complete overhaul, dismantling everything and initiating a fresh start… we were consistently facing substantial challenges,” she stated.
In response to these assertions, Mr. Johnson’s team maintains that the actions taken by Number 10 consistently adhered to the constitution, and no member of the royal family ever communicated such concerns to him.