EPA/ANDY RAIN
According to the British media, Boris Johnson is the most beloved politician in the UK; a prime minister in the waiting. When he arrived to speak at the Conservative party conference on 9 October, the mayor of London, whose bumbling, shaggy-haired symbolically crumpled appearance has endeared him to many, and has prompted countless commentators to pronounce him, not just a leadership challenger in waiting, but a fully-fledged leader in waiting; the next prime minister, in fact.
The historian and former editor of the Daily Telegraph (with whom Johnson has singular ties) Max Hastings has been particularly scathing of Johnson, noting his almost rock star-like reception at the conference in Birmingham, and suggesting, that while other media lapped-up the Johnson persona, a more cautious note should be struck.
“His speech to conference reflected all his wit, brilliance and showmanship. He is an authentic star, who lights up every room he enters. He makes people laugh and feel good. He sings a song that the British people – who currently despise almost every other politician in the pack – will crowd any venue to hear”, wrote Hastings, correctly reflecting the confidence that coloured his speech and the clamour of his appearance. The writer threatened to leave the country if Johnson ever becomes prime minister; as many believe that this political event may actually happen, despite the mayor’s protestations that he has no ambitions in this regard.
Despite Johnson’s many flaws; his background of privilege (on a par with PM David Cameron and his chum, George Osborne, but still, seemingly, not a stick to beat him with), his marital infidelity, his less-than-heavyweight persona, he is still a much-loved political figure in the UK, which may be down to the blandness that he is contrasted with. Even when David Cameron was attempting to re-brand the party as a more cuddly collective, with a green and blue tree replacing the old Britannia-style flaming torch as the Tory logo, Johnson, as mayor-in-waiting was darting about London on his bike. He was doing while others were conceptualising. And not only that; the deputy prime minister under the Labour government at the time, John Prescott, had undermined the party’s environmental credibility with his penchant for government cars. Johnson, was striking at hypocrisy both right and left.
But Hastings is wholly correct to call Johnson out: his becoming Conservative leader (and potential prime minister, therefore) would be a disaster for Britain. The personality problems recalled by Hastings may be down to personal animus between the two men, but, as a former correspondent in Brussels, there are many officials and journalists who will still attest to Johnson’s ruthless, often careless ambition, contrasted with his cultivated outward persona.
Johnson, who comes from the right of the Conservative Party, trades, not only on his St bernard-like bumbling eccentricity, but more potently for his party colleges, on his Euroscepticism, something that was a previous bête noire of the party, and one which has resurfaced of late, with backbench pressure on the leader for a referendum on membership of the European Union.
Compared to Johnson, David Cameron’s star s falling. Not just facing pressure for the right, both within his own party and frm other fringe parties such as the UK Independence Party, and the newly-formed, cross-party I want a Referendum party, but also from within his own government coalition. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats may have felt they could do a deal on the economy, but Europe is a massive source of disagreement between them; so much so that Liberal Leader and Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, whose popularity is plummeting rapidly along with that of his party, is reportedly biding his time until he is ushered away to the European Commission and a general election triggered.
Giving the closing speech of the Conservative Party conference on 10 October, Cameron, aware of the media push behind his rival, was intent on portraying the party as more inclusive, and less privileged, than a Johnson leadership would have it.
On top of that, Cameron is fighting a rearguard action on Europe, as the EU pushes towards a banking union, opposed by the UK, and for a Financial Transaction Tax, again not welcomed by Cameron, he risks being isolated (as opposed to principally defiant). Johnson, a former correspondent in Brussels, who knows the political structures and complexities inside out., and as such, must be aware of the dangers of simply gainsaying the machinery of the European Union. He can do that as a populist pseudo-candidate, but not necessarily as a leader.
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