While some may argue Boris Johnson’s pressure for resignation is a reflection of poor decision-making as prime minister, many supporters of Johnson believe he is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. While both camps have convincing arguments, we must account for his record of popularity and levels of support.
As a prime minister, you must be a jack of all trades; during his term, Boris Johnson takes the role of the Negotiator of Brexit, Public Health Director during the time of COVID, the treasurer for the cost-of-living crisis, and an ally of Ukraine during the conflict – the latter two being a job he had to work simultaneously.
Indeed, Boris Johnson is a great admirer of Winston Churchill. In 2014, he published a book called ‘The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History’, in which he made a detailed analysis of the life of Winston Churchill, and considers Churchill to be the person who saved British civilisation. It can be said that Boris Johnson’s decision-making is influenced by the this knowledge. However, considering how much the political landscape of Britain has changed over the years, are the ideas of Churchill applicable in contemporary Britain?
To analyse how the British public responded to Boris Johnson’s decision-making, there are four timestamps that we can use as a reference: 31st January 2020, when the UK officially leaves the European Union, 23rd March 2020 when the British government announced its first lockdown, 30th November 2021 when the party gate scandal was first exposed by the media, and 24th February 2022 when Russia first deployed its military into Ukraine.
According to the data from YouGov, the British public initially approval towards Boris Johnson’s decisions across the period of officially leaving the EU and the initial handling of the pandemic. The approval rating of the British Prime minister increased slightly after the UK left the European Union, and his approval rating went up significantly after the government announced its first lockdown. His approval, however, slowly dwindled as the lockdown continued.
But despite his reduced approval rating, the majority of the public still voted for his party in the 2021 local election. It shows that the British public still had confidence in Boris Johnson compared to other candidates. The concern that other parties may impose stricter lockdown measures and the inability of Labour party leader Keir Starmer to maintain its “red wall” contributed to the election result.
The real pressure for Boris Johnson to resign only came after the partygate scandal. The percentage of the population who believe Boris Johnson is doing badly sharply increased after the scandal was exposed. Many were outraged at the fact that Boris Johnson was participating in a party with his colleagues while the entire nation was being told to stay at home. This is the time when calls for Boris Johnson to resign started and his support within his party decreased.
However, as the pressure for Boris Johnson to resign grew, the Ukrainian crisis began. Boris Johnson’s ‘special’ support for Ukraine won him an increase in approval from the UK public.
But as the toll of sanctions against Russia sparked a cost-of-living crisis in Britain, which has heavily impacted the British public and continues to do so, many more have lost faith in Johnson.
While research included in an article in the Guardian shows that more of the British public support justice for Ukraine than peace with Russia, the cost-of-living crisis will eventually outweigh the need to support a country on the other side of the continent. I want to draw from this that voters, in particular those who are traditionally Labour or Liberal Democrat devotees, start to see Boris’s support for Zelenskyy as an excuse to hold onto power. This could be reflected by the dwindling of his popularity as the conflict in Ukraine goes on and the prime minister often citing the situation in Ukraine as his justification for not resigning.
While global and national circumstances have had an impact on his popularity, it was ultimately his poor choices in those circumstances that led to Johnson’s resignation. Since the British public is dissatisfied with him for not following the COVID restriction he made himself, it appears he won’t stop clinging to the power that is slipping through his fingers. Undoubtedly, future prime ministers should remember the importance of public opinion, and not repeat the same mistakes as Boris Johnson.