The usually sympathetic media has rounded on the government for a second day over its handling of sleaze and Owen Paterson, and this time the verdict is even more brutal. It has been reported that the virulence of Thursday’s press criticism was one of the reasons the government so swiftly ditched a proposed new Tory-led standards panel. Following the U-turn and Paterson’s resignation, Friday’s papers make for even more difficult reading for the government, especially for Boris Johnson. The Mail carries a front-page picture of Johnson beside a headline questioning his leadership. The caption reads: “On day of farce, Tories U-turn on disgraced MP Paterson after public fury … he quits … and a nation aghast at Boris’s misjudgment asks … IS ANYBODY IN CHARGE AT No 10?” It is a much more pointed attack than Thursday’s Mail front page, which tried to blame the whole “political class” for the government attempt to set up a new standard’s panel. “Shameless MPs sink back into sleaze” was the confusing headline. But on Friday there is no doubt who the paper is gunning for. Inside, six pages prominently feature senior Tories questioning Johnson’s handling of the debacle.
One is quoted as saying: “The problem with Boris is he packs his cabinet with second-rate people, meaning there is no one to tell him he should take a different course. It all just looks like we’re back to the 1990s – MPs getting together to support their friends.” Even the staunchly loyal Daily Telegraph, which on Thursday carried a sympathetic interview with Paterson, appears to turn on the government. Its front page carries a pull quote from its columnist Fraser Nelson, which says: “Arrogance and complacency … it’s becoming easier to see how the Tories end …” The Telegraph’s front-page headline is “Paterson quits after backlash from MPs.” While the paper’s cartoonist Matt shows Guy Fawkes being caught, saying: “I’m setting up my own standards committee to look into this.” It is worth remembering that on Tuesday Johnson flew from Cop26 on a private jet to attend a Telegraph dinner at the Garrick with the paper’s former editor Charles Moore, a friend and vocal supporter of Paterson. The Times also focuses on how much the government’s mishandling of Paterson’s case has backfired on Johnson. Its front-page headline is “PM faces party backlash after suspension U-turn.” It reports that Tory MPs are angry at being whipped into blocking Paterson’s suspension for breaking lobbying rules by backing a new standards watchdog, only for the government to reverse the plan less than 24 hours later. “MPs did what they were told and have been made to look stupid and corrupt,” one backbencher tells the Times. The Financial Times reveals that potential Tory rebels were told they could lose constituency funding if they voted against the now-ditched new standards body. But one is quoted as saying: “Any MP who believed this deserves to have funding removed for being a thick gullible twat.” Johnson escapes front-page criticism in the Mirror and the Sun, but not the Star. It depicts Johnson and the leader of the house, Jacob Rees-Mogg, as clowns called Bozo and Rees-Smugg under a U-turn sign. The headline reads: “Well, we didn’t see that U-turn coming. Said nobody. Ever.” On the inside pages, the Sun reports it was Rees-Mogg who assured Johnson the plan for a new standards body was “watertight”. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, is also under pressure, according to the Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti. He quotes one MP as saying: “I have never heard ministers go through the lobby, saying out loud, ‘this is absolute madness’. The chief whip needs to go for this.” He writes: One said she had “been flung under a bus for one man” and asked “was it worth it?” Another, reeling minutes after the U-turn, called it “disgraceful” and criticised “huge party mismanagement” by the whips.