PMQs and the end of Boris Johnson
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Boris Johnson is a very obvious character type. He is the person who will say anything to get himself off the hook. He is an improviser. He is an intuitive sniffer-out of political and social advantage. He is a slippery debater with a sophist’s sense of humour. He is a man motivated entirely by self-interest.
If there was one positive aspect to his character, it was that he did not seek to disguise it. Johnson never presented himself as anything other than what he was. It was all there on the surface. He deceived on an almighty scale, but when it came to the nature of his own person, he did not deceive. He made clear who he was from the start.
Which makes the failure of his party colleagues to see what was coming all the more remarkable. For some reason they seemed unwilling to confront the grim shortcomings of the man who so greedily lunged for power, and who was willing to destroy the careers of two Conservative Prime Ministers in order to get it. Yes, he led the party to a large majority, but the opponent he faced — Corbyn — played a large part in that victory. Labour has new leadership and the Conservative party is now ten points behind in the polls.
Now, however, with the Pincher affair, and yet more deceit by the Prime Minister about what he knew and when, the scales have fallen from the eyes. Even the formerly loyal are beginning to see that it’s all over. But as Malcolm Rifkind, the former Conservative Minister and no fan of Johnson, pointed out on a Newsnight last night, it has “been over,” ever since Johnson took office. He had certain talents that he showed on the campaign trail, Rifkind said, but he was always hindered by a catastrophic inability to lead. When Johnson went into Downing Street, that inability became disastrously clear, and the results are now manifesting themselves in a shower of resignation letters, from the Chancellor on down.
Again — none of this should be a surprise. It was clear from the start that Johnson would always bring about political disorder of this sort because his character made it inevitable. This is not a political point, but a personal one that comes from Johnsons’s apparent inability to grasp the nature of consequence: that if you lie and deceive in public office, you will almost always be found out and the electorate doesn’t like it. Nobody does.
When Johnson arrived for today’s PMQs — which may well be his last — the Conservative benches remained silent. As Starmer grilled him about the Pincher affair, the Tory front bench sat stony-faced. When Johnson attacked the leader of the Opposition for having supported Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer responded: “What a pathetic spectacle, that the dying act of his political career is to parrot that nonsense.” The Conservatives were, Starmer said, “A corrupted party defending the indefensible.”
Watching Johnson shout and gesticulate at the dispatch book, it really did look all over, a lost, defeated man. Three of his own MPs stood and urged him to resign and one of them, Gary Sambrook, is on the 1922 Committee. When the Conservative MP Tim Loughton asked, “Does the Prime Minister think there are any circumstances in which he should resign?” the Commons chamber laughed.
After PMQs, Sajid Javid, the former Health Secretary, gave his resignation speech. “Institutions and integrity… underpin our great democracy,” he said, adding that “we are all motivated by the national interest and the public expects us to maintain honesty.” Honesty. It was obvious what he was referring to. Throughout it all, the Prime Minister sat still, staring into space.
“I will never risk losing my integrity,” said Javid, before turning to Partygate and to a personal assurance given to him by a senior official from No10 that “there were no parties and that no rules were broken.” There were gasps in the chamber at this line. “At some point,” he said, “we have to conclude that enough is enough — that point is now.” He noted that some cabinet members had decided not to follow his lead and stay put. “Not doing something is an active decision,” he said darky. After Javid’s statement, as the PM left the chamber the Labour benches shouted “Bye Boris” after him, and waved.
It is now clear that Boris Johnson has been a disaster, for the Tory party and the country. When he leaves office, it is unlikely that a Conservative successor will be able to fix the running catastrophe of the Tory party. It now looks like the party itself is broken, infused with the moral ambivalence that Johnson himself inspired. The current Conservative episode is at an end. And when it’s all over, Johnson’s tenure will be remembered as a matter of national shame.
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