If tory mps think the by-election is bad, try letting covid rip or ditching boris | thearticle

The North Shropshire by-election matters less than the impression that it matters greatly. Defeat had hitherto been unthinkable for the Tories in a rural seat where, until a few weeks ago,

the biggest grievance was cheap Antipodean meat imports. Things started to go wrong when Owen Paterson, who had enjoyed huge majorities there for almost quarter of a century, spontaneously

combusted. Some voters will have been incensed by the attempt to save him, others by the fact that it failed. He was and is a Shropshire lad, who would probably have held the seat if he had

stood. Then came Partygate. This emerging hulk of a story, bringing with it the excruciating spectacle of a Prime Minister forced to deny high jinks in his own house that everyone else in

Westminster apparently knew about, was bad enough, though fiendishly complicated. But then came that video. Allegra Stratton’s mock press conference was not merely embarrassing but easy to

understand. Her tearful resignation was spun as confirmation that dishonesty was being covered up. The new wave of Covid, with that sinking feeling of dèja vu, brought back vivid but grim

memories of last Christmas — and the impression that Downing Street apparatchiks were sneering at the plebs resonated even in Shropshire. On the streets of Wem and Oswestry, of Whitchurch

and Market Drayton, lifelong Conservative voters turned away in disgust. Many simply stayed at home. The only surprise was that of the 46 per cent who turned out to vote, fewer than half

voted Liberal Democrat. It could easily have been more. Many told Tory canvassers that they wished to register a protest but would return to the fold at the next election. Angry as they

were, even in a by-election very few could bring themselves to vote Labour. Helen Morgan, the new MP, is an accountant. Nothing to frighten the horses there. The Lib Dems as a party have now

been reduced to a sole function: a repository of indignation. Conservatives in the capital know that they have brought this humiliation upon themselves. After an almost unprecedented series

of self-inflicted blunders and unforced errors, some will be tempted to blame the boss. Boris does indeed bear considerable responsibility and his popularity has slumped accordingly. But

his standing with the electorate has fluctuated before. More than most Prime Ministers, he is a barometer of the feel-good factor. It is impossible to be sure whether this time the damage to

his reputation will be permanent. If it is, his party really is in trouble. For the Tory party should be in no doubt that it is chiefly they, rather than Boris Johnson, of whom the country

has had enough. A creeping sense of outrage at the apparent indifference of the political class to the nation’s ordeal has crystallised in a full-scale peasants’ revolt on the Welsh borders.

The Shropshire farmers don’t need to march on London, like the French yellow vests, to make their presence felt. They weren’t only biffing the Tories for playing fast and loose with Covid

restrictions, but for unleashing inflation (now 5 per cent and rising), for putting up taxes and National Insurance, for failing to protect our borders. But it could get worse — much worse.

If this week’s rebels have their way by blocking any new measures to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, we could be only weeks away from NHS hospitals closing their doors to new

patients because their staff are self-isolating and their beds are filled with unvaccinated Covid patients. Conservative MPs know they are unpopular, but they have seen nothing yet. They may

pooh-pooh Chris Whitty’s warnings, but were the National Health Service to be overwhelmed, they would not dare to show their faces in public. If Labour can make the old charge that the NHS

is not safe in their hands stick, the Tories could be out of power for a generation. In this predicament, Boris Johnson is an asset rather than a liability. He is, after all, the main reason

why, only two years ago, the backbenchers who are now so disgruntled were able to celebrate their first landslide since 1987. The party and its leader not only stand or fall together — they

must, as Benjamin Franklin said of his fellow American revolutionaries, either hang together or they will assuredly hang separately. Instead of wasting time and energy, not to mention

garnering yet more negative headlines, by spending the Christmas recess in idle speculation about leadership contests, the Conservatives need to prepare for a mid-term relaunch early in the

New Year. While the country goes into pandemic hibernation, the Government should seize the day with firm action on all fronts. Then, as people resurface in the spring, ministers should be

ready with new ideas, adding up to a coherent vision of how they will restore Britain’s fortunes over the next few years. And that vision will be articulated, with his inimitable panache, by

a refreshed and resurgent Prime Minister. There just isn’t anyone else but Boris. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an

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