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Shahmir Sanni
4 min readNov 24, 2020

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Over the last few years many of us have shed blood, sweat, tears (& milkshakes) to unravel the intricacies and nuances of a corrupt British political class. From the coordinated disinformation campaigns being run by lobby groups that back Boris Johnson, millionaire donor interests… all the way to white supremacists whose ethos is entirely based on fear & a final race war between Muslims and white men guiding Johnson’s ministerial speeches.

Whether it be myself, Carole Cadwalladr, Open Democracy, the Byline Times, The Observer DeSmog, Doc Society, Christopher Wylie, Caroline Lucas, FairVote and the hundreds of freelance journalists and activists involved who have tried our very best to show the British people that Britain can no longer be Great under the rule of the Etonian elite….we have all worked tirelessly to help protect our country, our people.

There is something deeply wrong with our system. We have seen the very foundations of democracy wither, age & crumble. The very institutions that were meant to protect us, are now failing to uphold not just the law but follow through with basic administrative obligations. They are failing to hold our policymakers to account. They are failing to hold Downing Street to account.

And in this long quest for power, people like Boris Johnson have put aside their moral principles for the sake of an elitist ideology that they feed themselves to ensure only their own success, only their own liberation and only to ensure that their deep pockets are filled & their selfish desires fulfilled.

It is a hunger for power that is inherently selfish. And this selfishness is rooted in a classist system that has infected our country for centuries. It is inherently selfish. Boris Johnson is selfish.

It is a hunger for power that is inherently oppressive. Working class people to LGBTQ communities have had to deal with policies that they were told would help them, protect them, liberate them. When in reality this age-old British belief that only the Etonian can help us, protect us, liberate us, save us is what has led us down this path of division, hatred & fear. The Etonian mentality is inherently oppressive. Boris Johnson is inherently oppressive.

The revelations that I and other whistleblowers made last year about Vote Leave put a bright light over this darkness, oppression and selfishness. We saw that Boris Johnson oversaw a campaign that we now know for a fact was illegal.

We saw that some of the most influential advisors in Westminster, many of whom are Boris Johnson’s own advisors, participated in a scheme that led to the biggest electoral scandal in our history.

Just a few weeks ago, Vote Leave failed in following through with their appeal against the Electoral Commission because they knew they could never win. Boris Johnson was the spokesperson for that campaign. Some of his advisors who will be sitting with him in Downing Street ran that campaign.

The same Brexit campaign that misguided, used & abused young volunteers to help them break campaign finance laws. The same campaign that stoked division, hatred & fear.

The revelations that we made uncovered the true scale of corruption riddling Johnson’s world, riddling Britain.

Boris Johnson lied to the British public.

He lied to all of us.

If our next representative can be content with the perversion of democracy to gain power & win & then cover it up with tweets and foolish media appearances…what does that say about us?

What does that say about a country that used to value queuing in a line for hours over everything else? What does that say about a people that used to value democracy above all else? What does that say about a country that seemingly values the rule of law, justice and most importantly fairness?

Because this isn’t fair. Boris Johnson has not been fair. His party has not been fair. The media publications that support him have not been fair. Downing Street has not been fair. Cheating, lying, deceiving & spewing hate and division is not fair.

Britain deserves a Prime Minister that values the rule of law, unlike Johnson. Britain deserves a Prime Minister that is kind, unlike Johnson. The British people deserve a Prime Minister that values our children & their future more than they value lining their pockets through columns in newspapers like Johnson.

And most of all Britain deserves a Prime Minister that values fairness & the truth, above all else, unlike Johnson.

We deserve a Prime Minister who doesn’t deceive his people, who doesn’t put the needs of billionaires and dodgy lobby groups before the needs of his people. A Prime Minister who doesn’t break the queue.

It is my hope that the sacrifices that journalists, politicians and activists like you all have made will make a difference. It is my sincere belief that we as British people can reconcile our differences and get out of this mess. But we can’t do that when the people who are running our country were behind the biggest electoral scandal in modern British history. This isn’t about right or left, or just about Brexit or Remain. This is about choosing unity, equality and the rule of law over the perversion of democracy.

I sincerely believe we can do better than this.

I believe that Britain is better than this.

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