As the UK stands on the edge of a cliff, what of the boy who wanted to be ‘world king’ , what of the Eton elitist who never grew up. What did he achieve apart from total destruction of his country when he fulfilled his relentless ambition. Boris Johnson departs on an unusually low note.
Ousted by his own party, less than three years after leading it to a historic victory at the polls, which looked set to guarantee a political majority for the Conservatives for many years to come. Though some party members now appear to regret his ejection, the damage he has done to its reputation is profound; and Labour, especially if it forms an electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats, now has a real chance of winning the next general election.
Johnson was entirely the architect of his own downfall.
Fittingly, for a man known to be a serial adulterer and compulsive liar, he was ousted – not because of some major policy failure, but for his mishandling of sleazy scandals such as the Owen Patterson and Chris Pincher affairs, and lying over the ‘Partygate’ scandal.
Finally, even his own colleagues got fed up of trying to cover for him, while his story changed every week. Enough of them eventually found some spine – or became sufficiently worried about their own political fortunes – to vote for a change of leader.
But he presided over plenty of substantive political failures – most glaringly, Brexit, the issue most associated with his name, and which he and his supporters like to claim as his biggest achievement.
It is true that he succeeded in wresting the UK out of the EU and, in that sense, he did ‘deliver’ Brexit. But the birthing pains were acute, our political system, economy and international reputation were severely damaged in the process, and we are still wrangling with the EU over some of the details. We are going to be paying the costs of his Brexit for many years to come.
Another claim is that he got all the ‘big calls right’ on the pandemic. The Government’s proactive backing of several different vaccines in development certainly helped get us out in front of the curve in terms of finding a vaccine that worked. The initial roll-out went well, helped by thousands of volunteers, and the booster campaign late last year was also impressive.
Nevertheless, the UK’s high Coronavirus death toll and exhausted NHS tells its own story. Whether you were for or against extended lockdowns, it is hard to dispute that Johnson was slow to react to the gravity of the situation when the virus first hit our shores, and also hesitated dangerously during subsequent spikes in infections.
As for the economy, this is how a presenter at a right-leaning think tank in Washington summed up the current state of the British economy to visiting UK Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi:
“I think we can say the UK is in a dire economic situation, that is the word I would use. In its monetary policy report last month, the Bank of England had a very pessimistic report: in June, UK prices had risen by 9.4% on an annual rate. The Bank of England forecast that UK prices will hit a hit 13% annual rate by end 2022, and will stay above the 2% target for at least a year. The Bank forecast a recession beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, and is forecasting five consecutive quarters of contraction, followed by a period of zero percent growth. Private sector forecasts are even more pessimistic – some are finding that UK inflation will hit 18%, 20% 22% on an annual basis.
“The pound fell 4.5 cents against the dollar in August, the biggest monthly drop in six years, and declined almost 3% against the euro – an indication that international currency markets have a deteriorating outlook for Britain’s economy.
“The Resolution Foundation, a UK think tank, predicts real household income will fall by 10% by the end of next year, and that the number of people living in poverty will rise by three million. The think tank says that the next prime minister will face ‘the deepest living standards squeeze in a century’.
“The Office of Gas and Electrical Markets announced that households would see an increase from about £2,000 to £3,500 per year in October for a typical household. That is a massive increase. Some analysts think this could rise to as much as £7,000, an increase of more than a factor of three.
“[But] Liz Truss, the successor, says recession is not inevitable in the face of all this.” Britain, a population of 67 million , has a new Prime Minister that 80,000 conservatives voted for.
A New Prime Minister, who has no mandate as an unelected Prime Minister.
The MP for SW Norfolk, Truss supported Johnson's bid to become Conservative leader. In 2019 He appointed Truss as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. She took on the additional role of Minister for Women and Equalities in September 2019. She moved from the Department for International Trade to be promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle. She was appointed the Government's chief negotiator with the European Union and UK chair of the EU–UK Partnership Council in December 2021.
In 2019 no one voted for her to be a future Prime Minister
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