Boris, Carrie and John Lewis: a very English scandal

It has often been asked, following the Conservatives’ landslide victory in 2019, quite how Boris Johnson managed to win over the Red Wall. The Labour grandee, Alan Johnson, famously quipped that Jeremy Corbyn “couldn’t lead the working class out of a paper bag” – but how on earth did the Old Etonian toff, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, do it?

Of course, elite populists are nothing new. Both Boris and Trump are modern incarnations of Crassus and Caesar bribing the plebeians with “bread and circuses”. And much has already been written on the Prime Minister’s appeal as a “Heineken candidate”, who can reach parts of the electorate which traditional politicians cannot.

But with local government and other nationwide elections taking place next week, the question is whether sleaze stories, comments about bodies piled high and now a fully prefixed scandal (Wallpapergate) will have damaged Boris’s Heineken appeal. 

The most recent polling would suggest not: according to BMG Research, the Tories have extended their lead over Labour and Boris’s personal ratings over Keir Starmer have even improved, with 40-24 per cent picking him as their favoured Prime Minister, compared to 35-28 per cent in March. Boris really is Teflon material.

This is even more surprising, considering that Wallpapergate has all the hallmarks of what is now invariably referred to as “a very English scandal”: sleaze, snobbery, illicit payments and the dubious antics of the English upper classes. It seems unlikely that David Cameron would have survived but, so far at least, Boris seems to have proven scandal-proof.

Why is this? Little in socioeconomic terms separates him from Cameron: both are Old Etonians, Oxford graduates and, of course, Tories. If anything, Boris is more meritocratic than Cameron, having been a King’s Scholar at Eton – the so-called “elite within the elite”. During the 2019 Tory leadership campaign, Boris pledged to stand for “Oppidan Britain”, a reference to the non-scholars at Eton — of whom Cameron was one. 

Entire tomes have been dedicated to the peculiarities of the British class system and dozens will probably be written in the future on why the King’s Scholar succeeded where the Oppidan failed. 

But much of it, as always, can put down to appearances. If Boris went by his full name, combed his hair and wore designer clothes, like Cameron, he’d just be another slick Etonian. Instead, he’s the buffoon with ruffled hair and chaotic dress sense known everywhere just as “Boris”. He’s a caricature of the toff British people love to hate, rather than the toff they just hate. 

Boris has also earned a reputation for being financially precarious – an upper class version of what Theresa May might call “just about managing”. His salary as Prime Minister is considerably less than the one he received as a Telegraph columnist, not to mention the other freelance earnings he has temporarily denied himself. Not only has he funded his fiancée’s expensive interior designs, but also the costly divorce from his former wife (not to mention unknown levels of support for his many children).

Of course, this financial precariousness isn’t because Boris lacks money but because, as Symonds reportedly said during their much-publicised row two years ago, he has “no care” for it. Not only is he good at spending money, but, according to one (perhaps envious) acquaintance, he has a reputation for not coughing up when it is his turn to pay.

This is why Wallpapergate is dangerous for Boris Johnson – not just in terms of the Electoral Commission and other investigations but, more importantly, the optics of having an expensive luxury renovation in the midst of a global pandemic simply on the basis of his girlfriend’s “John Lewis furniture nightmare”. And then trying not to pay for it. Most voters, especially those in the Red Wall regions, would already consider John Lewis an upmarket brand. Few would denigrate it as a “nightmare”. Carrie Symonds, the uncrowned Queen of Downing Street, is now even being referred to as “Carrie Antoinette”. 

Indeed, it is revealing that Boris says that the “one thing [I] object to in this whole farrago of nonsense is that…I love John Lewis”. He doesn’t mind being investigated for potentially criminal activity, but rather the impact the “farrago” might have on his carefully crafted reputation. According to his biographer Sonia Purnell, he already developed and perfected this image management at Eton.

Next week we’ll find out how damaged Boris is – if at all. Six in ten people might see Boris as “untrustworthy”, as a recent Ipsos MORI survey showed, but untrustworthy is not the same as unpopular. The Tories maintain that Wallpapergate and sleaze don’t come up on the doorstep. Most people are grateful to their PM for having been vaccinated, regardless of what his wallpaper may be. 

As with Julius Caesar, it seems that, if and when Boris is removed from office, it will be by his fellow patricians, rather than the plebeians whose support he so desperately craves. An  irony that Cameron might appreciate is that Wallpapergate might have been avoided if Boris had taken advantage of Lex Greensill’s supply-chain finance services.

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