"Half of the MPs Threatened" Escalating Scandal in UK Partygate

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, cornered by the official residence drinking party scandal, is suspected of having threatened MPs who opposed him.

On the 20th (local time), William Wragg, a senior ruling party member and Chair of the House of Commons Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, stated, "It has been confirmed that several MPs who expressed their intention to hold a no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister were threatened and intimidated by the Chief Whip," adding that they are collecting additional cases to respond accordingly.

Prime Minister Johnson denied these allegations as baseless claims, but similar revelations continue to emerge, pushing the so-called Partygate scandal into a critical phase.

Christian Wakeford, a first-term MP who defected from the Conservative Party to the main opposition Labour Party in protest against Johnson's leadership, revealed the day before that he was threatened with the withholding of funding for a new school in his constituency if he did not support government policies.

Wakeford was elected in the 2019 general election from Bury South near Manchester in northern England, traditionally a Labour stronghold, defeating the Labour candidate.

Not only first-term MPs but also senior MPs have raised their voices in criticism, further destabilizing Prime Minister Johnson's position.

The day before, David Davis, a senior ruling party MP, publicly demanded Johnson's resignation by insulting him with words that Conservative MPs had used against former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was deceived by Hitler’s tactics and signed the Munich Agreement.

Steve Baker, an MP who played a key role in ousting former Prime Minister Theresa May, assessed in a BBC podcast interview that "Prime Minister Johnson is trapped in a dead end."

Both ruling and opposition MPs are reportedly discussing Johnson’s successor, naming Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Housing Secretary Michael Gove, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, and Jeremy Hunt, who competed closely with Johnson in the 2019 leadership race.

Meanwhile, as the government plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions to change the political atmosphere, foreign media report that with new daily cases in the UK surpassing 100,000 again, pressure on Prime Minister Johnson is expected to intensify.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.