By Matthew Vassallo
Another day and it would seem, yet another self-inflicted nail in the Prime Ministers political coffin.
Boris Johnson would have been, privately at least, cautiously optimistic that following the release of the now infamous Sue Gray report, he may finally be able to draw a line under the much-maligned party-gate debacle.
Whilst not exonerated, he would have pointed to the outcome of the various police investigations (from which he was only fined once) as evidence that whilst he accepted there were institutional failings inside Number 10, he was not the party planning pied piper that many of his critics would have us believe.
Even the markets seemed to sense his impending evasion, from what can only be described as biggest political kamikaze of a generation.
The Pound found support against both the EUR & USD following some sharp & then heavy losses, respectively. Whilst investors’ risk appetite for GBP was tempered by concerns linked to the stagnation of the global markets, the Pound had found sufficient support to move it away from the near 5-year lows it was trading at against the Dollar only a week or so ago, and some of the lowest trading levels we’ve seen against the single currency since Brexit was announced.
These moves, may however be short-lived, following further damning revelations in regard to the PM’s actions during lockdown. It would seem there is sufficient evidence to place him in at least one party he held around his birthday, which Labour have been quick to pounce on.
How this will play out only time will tell but the current situation Boris Johnson finds himself in can be aptly summed up by a famous quote from the actor Al Pacino in his critically acclaimed masterpiece Carlito’s Way.
“There is a line you cross, you don’t never come back from. A point of no return”