In their bid to replace the outgoing Boris Johnson, the Conservative Parliamentary Party have selected Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss as the two candidates who will now compete to win the votes of the roughly 160,000 Conservative Party members. There has been a petition organised by Lord Cruddas and David Campbell-Bannerman and signed by almost 6,000 of the aforementioned party members to include Johnson on the ballot, however this seems unlikely to gain much traction with an ever-dwindling minority of members standing by the Prime Minister. Even Johnson himself seemed to acknowledge his unpopularity with his refusal to endorse a candidate, for fear of ”damaging anyone’s chances.” So, how did we get here?
Despite his earliest involvements in politics – first as a journalist and subsequently starting as the member of parliament for Henley – being intriguing to say the least, it was his election as London Mayor in 2008 that elevated Boris Johnson into the mainstream political consciousness. It was in this role that his rambunctious approach to politics was at its most pronounced, with the reported success of ‘Boris Bikes,’ and of course the 2012 London Olympic games. His time in office demonstrated that the Falstaffian persona exuded by Johnson had the potential to be extremely politically successful – indeed, when Johnson left City Hall in 2016, a YouGov poll showed that only 29% of people believed he did a bad job. This was despite multiple significant failings, including the 2011 London riots, and the garden bridge to nowhere. Johnson’s “successes” exhibit salesmanship more than they do leadership – for example, much of the groundwork for the Olympics was put in place by former mayor Ken Livingstone. Likewise, plans for a bike hire scheme were announced before Johnson became the Mayor of London.
There could not have been a more obvious example of Boris Johnson’s opportunistic style of politics than his backing of the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign. There was the £350 million NHS figure plastered on the side of a bus, ‘Project Fear,’ and perhaps most memorably, ‘Take Back Control’. At 04:39 on the morning of the 24th of June, David Dimbleby delivered to the nation its own monumental decision: that the British people had voted to leave the EU. Within a matter of hours, David Cameron had resigned and Boris Johnson was touted as one of the favourites to take over as Conservative Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister.
‘Et tu, Brute’ – a reference to the most infamous betrayal in political history – was a reference repeated by Johnson’s father in regards to Michael Gove’s betrayal of his son. It was a simply extraordinary sequence of events. Gove, the man who convinced Johnson to join ‘Vote Leave’ and who had been alongside him throughout the campaign, now came out publicly and lambasted Johnson, claiming he couldn’t provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead. Johnson swiftly withdrew from the leadership campaign which Theresa May eventually won, and he was consigned to be Foreign Secretary.
It quickly became clear that Theresa May was swimming against an impossible current, facing attacks from all sides of the house, including from Johnson and his supporters. It became quickly apparent that May was the sacrificial lamb for Brexit; as a series of meaningful votes were defeated heavily in parliament and once resignations started to pile up, her position became increasingly untenable. After May’s resignation in 2019, Johnson then comfortably defeated Jeremy Hunt in the leadership election to finally inhabit 10 Downing Street. Johnson inherited an extremely difficult political situation with a very slim working majority – one which he quickly lost.
Frustrated, he went to the people. ‘Get Brexit Done’ was the aim – another three-word slogan, another successful political campaign. The Conservative Party cruised to an 80-seat majority, winning 365 constituencies – including seats like Bishop Auckland which, among others, went Conservative for the first time in its history. This was the biggest parliamentary majority in UK politics since 2001, and yet less than three years later it would completely collapse and fail in virtually all of its objectives.
Boris Johnson has always been desperate to emulate his great hero Winston Churchill. He wrote a book about him in 2014, The Churchill Factor, and his departing gift from cabinet was a collection of rare Churchill books. The major crisis faced by Boris Johnson, however, wasn’t a war with a tyrannical and genocidal regime; rather, it was a public health crisis. The pandemic required solemn, dignified and most importantly scrupulous, leadership, and channelling a Churchillian spirit simply didn’t cut it.
This was shown throughout the pandemic with an attitude arguably inappropriate for a public health crisis, with Johnson foolishly boasting about ‘shaking hands with everyone’ at the very start of the saga. It was, however, best exemplified by ‘Partygate’, a story with so many chapters it would require a separate article to chronicle in its entirety. It will remain a powerful contrast; the general public sacrificed goodbyes with loved ones, whilst those that made the rules, broke them.
The dismal results The Conservative Party faced in the 2022 May elections were attributed by councillors all across the country to Johnson’s failings. Almost 500 councillors lost their seats, with 11 councils changing hands in the process. Next followed a vote of confidence within the party after the threshold of 54 MPs writing no-confidence letters to the 1922 Committee was met. 148 Conservative MPs voted that they had no confidence in Johnson. This represented a significant percentage, and in our uncodified system a resignation would almost certainly be expected to follow. Convention, custom, tradition – Johnson showed a blatant disregard for all these values, and therefore in the process the whole British system.
Next came the dual by-elections, ironically held exactly six years after the Brexit referendum. These further confirmed many Conservative members’ fears surrounding the party’s electability – both across the country and within parliament. In the Wakefield constituency, a ‘red wall’ seat was lost to Labour in a 12.7% swing. Meanwhile in Tiverton and Honiton, the Liberal Democrats managed to overturn the largest ever vote majority, over 24,000, to take the seat by a significant margin. These results led to the resignation of Oliver Dowden, Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, alongside widespread condemnation amongst Tory grandees.
As Johnson’s administration was reaching what could be breaking point, would this government finally topple? Or would ‘Teflon Johnson’ manage to stumble through and somehow stay standing?
We got our answer just days later with the emergence of the Chris Pincher scandal. This scandal embodied all the problems of Boris Johnson’s tenure; it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak’s resignations sounded the death knell of Johnson’s government, and with every hour Johnson’s position looked increasingly untenable.
Politics is debate and governance. Boris Johnson may be a master of the former, but is arguably completely inadequate at the latter. The public may compartmentalise him as just a one-off political maverick, but we must remember he didn’t act alone. Many will remember how his government treated not just the British people, but the whole system of British politics.
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