Editor's note: Freddie Reidy is a freelance writer based in London. He studied history and history of art at the University of Kent, Canterbury, specializing in Russian history and international politics. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's recent political woes continue this week with the announcement that the UK Electoral Commission will be launching an inquiry into the financing of refurbishments to his 10 Downing Street apartment.

This latest development is one of a series of leaks and allegations which has awoken Westminster from its hitherto COVID-19 focused calm. What though does this mean for Johnson's stability in office?

What started as revelations that former Prime Minister David Cameron had lobbied on behalf of failed financial firm Greensill to gain access to the UK's COVID-19 business protection scheme, snowballed into a wider debate on the blurred lines between business and politics.

While initially not implicating Johnson, the Greensill affair did implicate the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who Cameron directly contacted via text message.

This direct access to ministers was seized upon by opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who attempted to revive attack lines of the 1990s, referring to "Tory Sleaze." Traction was gained when texts between the current prime minister and Dyson founder James Dyson revealed Johnson's promise to "fix" the tax system ensuring Dyson workers based in Singapore would not suffer financially while working on respirator development at the onset of the pandemic.

This attack line does possess a fundamental flaw though. Where Starmer tried to portray the situation as being "one rule for those who have the prime minister's phone number and another for everybody else", the situation is hardly one of sleaze, as Johnson himself put it, it is indicative of a leader "shifting heaven and earth… to secure ventilators for the people of this country."

The story was also widely sensationalized portraying Dyson as a significant party donor. Dyson writing in the Daily Telegraph though stated that "The BBC's characterization of me as a prominent Conservative donor, or supporter, leveraging a position for power to extract favors from the prime minister, is untrue.”

Corroborating Dyson's claim, the Electoral Commission released details showing that Dyson's contributions to the Conservative Party only extended as far as two donations, one of 5,000 pounds in 2016 with the second a year later for 6,450 pounds, both from The Dyson Foundation to Michelle Donelan MP, in support of a local Engineering Festival, claims corroborated in Donelan's list of declared interests.

A pattern therefore is beginning to emerge, but rather than that of sleaze, one of claims exaggerated for political gain. Whether that be claims of lobbying improprieties, which were found to be lawful and ultimately unsuccessful, or attempts by the government to secure ventilators during a national emergency.

Another leak was to follow through, with Johnson's divisive former adviser Dominic Cummings rumored to be the BBC source, accusing Johnson of crying that he would rather "let the bodies pile high" before granting a third national lockdown, a claim which Johnson has vehemently denied.

Again, despite some initial shock, the story has failed to gain traction, due perhaps to the fact that the bodies did not "pile high" before Johnson ordered a third lockdown. Indeed, what the public care most about is the vaccination program and the resumption of normality, areas where the government is enjoying rare praise.

Johnson's latest challenge following the Electoral Commission's conclusion that there are "reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred" in relation to his 10 Downing Street refurbishment, may yet prove more perilous than it may first appear.

In the short term, the public appear unconcerned by a scandal dubbed "cash for curtains" in reference to the "cash for questions" parliamentary scandal of the early 1990s.

What is of more concern is the cumulative effect of these seemingly unimportant breaches or alleged breaches. Westminster politics is a game of the perception of power, if Johnson were to be found guilty of misconduct by the Electoral Commission; it lends verisimilitude to all the other charges made against him, a development which could prove fatal.

Coupled with this, is the unpleasant political reality that wartime prime ministers tend to fair badly once the crisis has passed. COVID-19 is widely seen as the most comprehensive threat faced by western leaders since the World War II and Johnson will likely see the tolerance extended to him evaporate once the galvanizing nature of a collective threat is lifted.

Many politicians have waited in the wings for decades, such as his predecessors; Brown, Cameron and May, only to see their ambitions derailed by the burning issue of the day. As former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan commented, it is "events, dear boy, events". To avoid the same fate, Johnson must seek to reward the trust the public has placed in him and become an active symbol of renewal and reconstruction in a post-COVID-19 world, or face becoming a symbol of what was wrong with the past.

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