Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson - The Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party

Boris Johnson is the living embodiment of White Male Privilege. His misdemeanours are so multitudinous that there is not space for them all here. And yet, he has risen, after several public falls from grace, to the highest office in the land. We list here only the wrongdoings most pertinent to political change in the UK.

Sacked by the former leader of the Conservative Party in November 2004 for lying.

Sacked by his boss at The Times for allegedly inventing a quote in an article.

Discussed with an old friend and later convicted felon Darius Guppy how best to assault journalist Stuart Collier.

After becoming the MP for Henley in Oxfordshire, Johnson used his Telegraph column to mock a visit to Africa by the then prime minister, Tony Blair. It predicted that when Blair met 'the tribal warriors' they would 'all break out in watermelon smiles'. He added that the Queen loved the Commonwealth 'partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies'. For the avoidance of any doubt, this language is racist.

Johnson used his Telegraph column for a homophobic slur and varied examples of sexism.

40+ lies, gaffes and scandals have been collated here by The Mirror newspaper

Epilogue: By July 2022, Boris Johnson, having survived numerous scandals, many of his own making, no longer commanded the support of his colleagues. Over 60 people resigned including 13 ministers, citing the unsuitability of Johnson to hold the office of PM. A year later, the Commons Privileges Committee found that Johnson had misled MPs and recommended a 90-day suspension from parliament. This unprecedented sanction would have triggered a by-election in Johnson's constituency. Being unwilling to face that indignity and the possibility of defeat, Johnson resigned as an MP.

Dominic Mckenzie Cummings - Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister

Dominic Cummings is arguably the most powerful and important man in the country. It was clear in the "CummingsGate" debacle of Spring 2020, in which he and his family broke the spirit of the law on quarantine, that he was too important to be sacked and to powerful to be reprimanded. His abrasive style and uncompromising attitude towards those he regards as lazy or intellectually inferior, which would include most MPs, have made him few friends.

Former Conservative PM John Major called him a "political anarchist" who was "poisoning politics" Most crucially, Cummings should be called to account for the fact that Brexit campaign group Vote Leave (of which he was the director) was fined £61,000 and referred to the police after an Electoral Commission probe found it had broken electoral law. 

Epilogue: In November 2020, Cummings resigned from his position as Chief Adviser to Boris Johnson. By 2021, Cummings was publicly commenting disparagingly on the competency of government and Johnson in particular, who he referred to as the "The Trolley". 

Jacob William Rees-Mogg - Leader of the House of Commons

Jacob Rees-Mogg freely admits he is not a modern man. With six children, an inherited nanny,  a curious dress sense and an excessively polite demeanour Rees-Mogg cultivates the appearance of a politician from a previous century. This is a façade that should be scrutinised. 

Rees-Mogg uses his Catholic faith to excuse appalling bigotry. On Good Morning Britain he announced he is against same-sex marriage and abortion in any circumstances. 

Rees-Mogg's hedge fund, Somerset Captial, helped earn him an estimated net worth of around £100 million. Scram News has collected Rees-Moggs worst moments here. 

Epilogue: Rees-Mogg was knighted in Boris Johnson's resignation honours list of July 2023. Many polls show his seat is under threat in the next election. He presents a show on GB News.

Gavin Alexander Williamson - Secretary of State for Education

Gavin Williamson was sacked as Defence Secretary in 2017 following an inquiry into a leak from a top-level National Security Council meeting. This serious breach of trust followed a litany of gaffes and failures compiled here. 

Epilogue: In November 2022, Williamson resigned from Rishi Sunak’s cabinet after the Guardian revealed claims that he told a senior civil servant to “slit your throat” while he was defence secretary. It was the third time Williamson had quit high office due to either incompetence, duplicity or bullying.

Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Education

Grant Shapps, a former Tory chairman, resigned from the 2015 government in disgrace in the wake of revelations that he had been warned about bullying in the party before the death of one of its young activists. This followed the accusation that he 'or someone acting on his behalf' edited his own Wikipedia page along with the entries of political opponents, in order to promote his position and denigrate the position of his fellow Conservative rivals. 

Epilogue: In the chaotic year of 2022 Shapps held three ministeral roles: Home Secretary, Business Secretary and Energy Secretary. Shapps announced his campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party, following the resignation of Boris Johnson, on 9 July 2022. He withdrew from the race on 12 July, endorsing Rishi Sunak for leader.

Priti Sushil Patel - Home Secretary

For many, Priti Patel first came to public attention in 2011 when on the BBC's Question Time she expressed support for the Death Penalty. In 2013 she voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales. 

Patel has been criticised by some for raising issues in the House of Commons related to her time working for the tobacco industry. As a parliamentarian, Patel has been consistently supportive of tobacco industry viewpoints: in October 2010, she voted for the smoking ban to be overturned. 

In 2017 she was forced to resign after it emerged that she had held undisclosed meetings with senior Israeli politicians both during a "family holiday" in Israel and in London and New York, without notifying the Foreign Office. Since her return to political prominence Patel continues to be dogged by allegations of bullying. 

Epilogue: As Home Secretary (2019-2022) Patel courted multiple controversies regarding, policing and crime, public protests, immigration, asylum seekers and the legal profession. On 5 September 2022, in anticipation of the appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Patel tendered her resignation as Home Secretary. Patel was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 9 June 2023 as part of Boris Johnson's Resignation Honours.

Rishi Sunak - Chancellor of the Exchequer

Rishi Sunak is one of the richest sitting MPs with a personal fortune of over £200 million. His wife Akshata Murthy's father is Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of multinational IT company Infosys. 

Rishi's personal wealth is the result of being one of a small team of hedge fund bosses who shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis. One of the most popular politicians in the country made his millions as an financial speculator. The exploits of his cohort caused The Great Recession and a decade of economic hardship in the politically expedient form of austerity. 

Epilogue: After losing the Conservative Leadership selection to Liz Truss, Sunak's political future was unclear. However,  the disastrous and record short premiership of Liz Truss provided a second opportunity for Sunak to run for leader. In a carefully managed selection process Sunak claimed victory and became the fifth Prime Minister in just over six years.

Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman - Attorney General

Suella Braverman believes herself and her fellow Conservatives are engaged in a battle against Cultural Marxism. To have an Attorney General who believes in an antisemitic conspiracy theory is disturbing. Braverman also belongs to a controversial religious sect which continues to venerate its founder despite well-documented claims that he was a serial sexual predator. The New Statesman carried a piece on Braverman suggesting her appointment spells danger for human rights.

Epilogue: Braverman was appointed Home Secretary in the Liz Truss ministry on 6 September 2022. She quickly sought to prover herself to be more committed and extreme than her predecessor Priti Patel. 

In October 2022, Braverman was forced to apologize after it was revealed that she had sent an official document to a Tory backbencher from her personal email account. This was in breach of the ministerial code, which states that ministers must use government email accounts for official business. 

In March 2023, Braverman sparked controversy after she described illegal immigrants coming to the UK as an "invasion." This was widely condemned by opposition politicians and human rights groups. 

In April 2023, Braverman was accused of questioning the impartiality of civil servants after she sent an email to Conservative Party members blaming them for blocking government plans to tackle illegal immigration. This was seen by some as an attempt to undermine the civil service. 

In July 2023, Human rights campaigners began legal actions against Braverman after she forced draconian new police powers through parliament in a move described by the House of Lords as a “constitutional outrage”.

Michael Andrew Gove - Minister for the Cabinet Office & Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Michael Gove is well know for his scheming and backstabbing, costing Boris Johnson the chance to be leader of the Conservative party in 2016, that the practice became know as "Doing a Gove". Gove has also been accused of hypocrisy after 'hosting cocaine fuelled party on day he condemned middle-class coke users'. His failures when education secretary have also led experts to fear that he has failed a generation of children. Not that Gove would care for the opinions of experts. 

Epilogue: In June 2021, Gove was found to have acted unlawfully when the Government awarded a COVID-19 contract without a tender to a polling company owned by long-term associates of his and Dominic Cummings, then Johnson's chief adviser. In December 2021, Gove was accused of hypocrisy after he was photographed attending a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown.  

Matthew John David Hancock - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Matt Hancock has accumulated an increasing number gaffes and failures since becoming an MP in 2010. In his role as Minister of State for Energy, he was criticised for hiring a private jet to fly back from a climate conference and accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation Global Warming Policy Foundation. 

In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers". In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own smartphone app. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information.  

As health secretary during the Coronavirus pandemic Hancock will face an inevitable reckoning, via public inquiry, into the failures of Government on PPE, Care Homes policy and over 200,000 deaths. 

Epilogue: In June 2021, Hancock resigned as Health Secretary after CCTV footage emerged of him kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo in his office. The footage was published by The Sun newspaper, and it showed Hancock and Coladangelo embracing and kissing in what appeared to be a close personal relationship. Hancock had previously denied having an affair with Coladangelo.

In July 2021, Hancock was accused of misleading Parliament about the government's procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hancock told Parliament that the government had followed the correct procurement procedures when awarding contracts for PPE. However, it later emerged that the government had awarded contracts to companies that had no experience in supplying PPE, and that some of these companies had links to government ministers. Hancock was accused of misleading Parliament and of breaking the ministerial code.

In October 2021, Hancock was criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK had one of the highest death tolls from COVID-19 in Europe, and Hancock was accused of not doing enough to protect the public. He was also criticized for his handling of the vaccine rollout, which was slow and chaotic.

Liz Truss - Secretary of State for International Trade

Mary Elizabeth Truss was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade, also referred to as the International Trade Secretary.  Famously, a strong supporter of British cheese and pork, Truss established the post-Brexit legal framework for the UK to conduct trade deals with nations around the world. In reality, this saw her do little more than copy/paste existing trade deals - some of which would be branded failures by colleagues.

In December 2020, Truss - a proud anti-woke culture warrior - made a speech on equality policy announcing that the government and civil service would no longer be receiving unconscious bias training. Truss would come to find political bias in allies and enemies alike on her journey to the top job. Dominic Cummings revealed Truss was “about as close to properly crackers as anybody I've met in parliament”.

Epilogue: Liz Truss became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in September 2022 after receiving 81,326 votes from Conservative members. Truss's premiership was short-lived. She resigned in October 2022, after just 49 in office, which included the period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II. Her resignation came after her flagship economic policy, a mini-budget, crashed the markets, threatened pensions and caused mortgage costs to increase. Truss's resignation was a major setback and embarrassing episode for the Conservative Party. It came at a time when the party was already facing a number of challenges, including the cost of living crisis and a cost of living crisis. It also raised questions about the future of the Conservative party.

In summary...

Alleged liars, racists, philanderers, homophobes, sexists, speculators, conspiracists, hypocrites, wreckers, leakers, bullies, fantasists, bigots, self-entitled millionaires. Why do people with such traits govern us? Why do we get the wrong politicians? How can we do better? How can we do politics differently? These are the questions Direct Democracy UK will address in future as we set out a case for better systems of governance, enfranchisement and autonomy. 

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