Lara Prendergast is assistant editor for The Spectator.
The Boris Johnson Show
LONDON — The mood changed in Britain as summer began. Theresa May resigned as prime minister at the end of May (quite fitting) and a leadership contest got underway. Two weeks ago, the contenders were whittled down to two: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
Brexit is boring. Leadership contests are fun. For the past few weeks, the national mood has felt giddier, more exuberant, a little silly. It helps that the Cricket World Cup is on and Wimbledon has just begun. The newspapers haven’t been filled with quite so many stories about “the Irish backstop” or the customs union, pieces of Brexit jargon that we have all had to resign ourselves to using. It’s been mostly “Bonking Boris.”
British politics has started to resemble an episode of Love Island, the reality TV show in which glamorous contestants strut, perform, and play ridiculous games in front of the watchful gaze of the audience, which must then decide which characters they like more. Boris Johnson has revealed that he enjoys making model buses out of wine boxes in his free time; Jeremy Hunt has been photographed eating that classic British staple, fish and chips, trying to look normal.
We have been fed salacious stories of Boris Johnson’s love life, his marital problems and his late-night tiffs. Last weekend, The Guardian published a story about an altercation between Boris and his new 31-year-old girlfriend Carrie Symonds at her flat in south London. One neighbor said they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging.” Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat.” Plates were smashed. A sofa was ruined with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt,” she told him. “You have no care for money or anything.” A few days later, a peculiar photo was released, showing the pair sitting at a picnic table in the Sussex countryside.
This weekend, a friend of Boris Johnson’s first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, implied that the Tory leadership contender had an aggressive, bullying side. When asked by a reporter to confirm whether there was any truth to this account, his ex-wife refused to comment, instead holding up an issue of the New Statesman magazine, which had a cartoon of Boris Johnson in a cage on the cover under the headline “Restraining Order.”
What Boris Johnson does care about is becoming prime minister, and he is set to do just that, unless there is a big political upset. The Tory party members, who now get to cast their votes, tend to be big Boris fans. They believe him when he says he can deliver Brexit and they like the fact that he irritates so many media pundits. Two thirds of the members are expected to vote for him. Why? Because Boris is box office, even more entertaining than Donald Trump, which is not something that could be said for Theresa May. After three years of miserable Brexit negotiations, he provides light relief. Whether or not he can solve the diplomatic and political riddle of Brexit is another matter.
The press has decided that he doesn’t deserve an easy ride into Downing Street. With the exception of the Daily Telegraph (where Boris Johnson is a columnist), most right-wing publications have turned against him. Over the past few weeks, a significant number of pieces have been published that can be summed up as: “I know Boris—which is why I know he would be completely inappropriate as prime minister.” The author normally points out that they are an acquittance of the prospective PM (“I knew him at Eton”; “I knew him at Oxford”; etc), while also signaling that they are not so foolish as to be won over by that famous charm. A lot of people seem jealous of Boris Johnson.
Jeremy Hunt, Johnson’s rival for PM, has also spent the past few weeks attacking Boris—anything to make his own campaign seem more interesting. Hunt is widely agreed to be a somewhat boring opponent, a diligent politician, the dreaded “safe pair of hands.” Theresa May was imagined to be just that and she was a disaster. Like May, Hunt voted for Britain to Remain in the European Union, so Tory members will be wary of him. He has promised to “deliver a Brexit that works for the 48% [who didn’t support Brexit] not just the 52% [who did]—a positive, open and internationalist Brexit, Great Britain not Little England.” Because of this remark, he was accused of being uncommitted to leaving the EU and appeasing the side that voted to remain. “That is literally the opposite of what I said,” he insisted. “Brexit is not and never will turn us into Little England and I’d never suggest that’s what Brexiteers want.”
Of course, whoever makes it to Number 10 will only have a few weeks to find a way to take Britain out of the EU before October 31. Opinions differ as to what Boris Johnson should do if he becomes prime minister. One camp believes he should convince the EU that he is prepared to leave without a deal; the other hopes that he will go on a charm offensive and convince the EU to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement.
Soon the leadership race will be over, Britain will have a new prime minister, and we will have to return to using all that Brexit jargon. For now, the silliness continues. This week, the question of who might win a mud wrestling competition was raised. Boris says he would “defeat anybody in such a contest, were I obliged to do so, but that’s not how I propose to win this.” Hunt, of course, backs himself. The audience stays tuned.
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