Boris Must Go

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Like the US, the UK has been on a bad path for many years. Our nations have endured decades of political leaders whose efforts betrayed their people’s best interests. Thatcher and Reagan put us on the neoliberal path, while Clinton and Blair cemented it and greased the skids for their one personal fortunes. (Bill and Hillary reportedly have $120M in wealth, while Blair reportedly holds $60M.)

In fixing the game for the few, they broke the system for the many. It now rejects those who would try to change it. Neither Boris Johnson nor Donald Trump was an accident. They were both products of the systems. Trump is out of office, but has he lost power? Johnson is on the verge of losing his seat, but he’s repeatedly been in that position. Getting rid of Johnson will not fix the system, just as voting Trump out didn’t fix US politics. But like Trump, Johnson must go as a first step towards the possibility of recovery. Does anyone think things will get better for the UK’s people as long as Boris is shooting from the hip to save his own ass?

Back in June 2019, I wrote an opinion piece that called Boris Johnson unfit for the job of Prime Minister. In that, I noted that Johnson’s “eagerness to pervert the truth and his seemingly relentless focus on power and adulation” all combined to make him “a dangerous candidate.” In August 2021, I looked back on that post and noted that it felt like I had underestimated the danger. Another six months have cemented this belief.

Before he became PM, the man was twice fired for lying, once as a journalist and another as a politician— two vocations where trust is meant to be paramount. Articles and lists of his lies abound, and there’s even a website dedicated to his BS. (I recommend scrolling through the list they’ve assembled to take in the scale.)

Dominic Cummings, Boris’ estranged former right-hand man, claims he would “swear under oath” that Boris not only knew of the lockdown parties, but that he had provided consent. In April 2021, leaders of six opposition parties called for an inquiry into his deceptions. Around the same time, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas called him a serial liar. It should be no surprise that he’s in hot water again for the same.

In the run-up to the Brexit vote, Boris wrote two columns, one in favor of remaining in the EU and the other set out the argument for leaving. He went through this exercise just four months before the vote. Before then, he had supported staying in the EU—a year earlier, he wrote a letter which was read aloud at a former Tory PM’s funeral that particularly extolled the value of the single market—but then he switched allegiance and picked up the banner for Leave. With another politician, this might’ve seemed an aberration. For Boris, it seems par for the course.

After the vote, the existence of the two columns came to light, and Boris claimed that they were part of his effort to sort out his position, but also that the pro-Europe column had been “semi-parodic.” He further claimed that it became “blindingly obvious” that Brexit was the right thing to do, but the hit to the UK economy since leaving suggests otherwise. And while he’s the man that led the charge out of the EU and its single market back in 2011, he said the following.

I’m inclined to agree with Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who claimed his support of leaving the EU was “based not on the merits of that argument but probably what he thought was best for his own political advancement.” Johnson surely saw Brexit as a vehicle that might bring him to No. 10. When the time came, others surely saw Boris as a vessel to bring them Brexit. They both got what they wanted, but while Boris believed he could use Brexit to get in and then do what he wanted once he got through the door, the opposite appears ever more likely to be true.

It’s worth considering whether Boris would make the same choice if he had to make it again. He got the shiny thing he desperately wanted, but at what cost? He’s deeply distrusted and seemingly failing on all fronts. For Brexit, it’s hard to see any benefits to the economy or the people. As the writer John Harris recently put it:

A Telegraph column written in February 2016 warned that leaving the EU would create uncertainty for businesses. It also noted doing so would embroil “the Government for several years in a fiddly process of negotiating new arrangements, so diverting energy from the real problems of this country—low skills, low social mobility, low investment, etc—that have nothing to do with Europe.” Five years later, I wonder if Boris Johnson ever gets a bit wistful thinking about that column since he was its author.

For two years, Boris has overseen a shambolic response to the pandemic. Yes, the UK has done relatively well with vaccinations, but taking advantage of inequalities, while blocking access to technology (along with other wealthy nations) is hardly something to crow about. In terms of public health measures, they repeatedly waited until the circumstances became dire to make moves and then ripped off the bandaid as soon as they made any progress. The same thing happened again as the nation’s Plan B measures were ended in late-January, while daily new confirmed cases were higher than they had been at any time in the pandemic before the current wave. It’s the governmental equivalent of the “This is fine” meme.

His cabinet has featured ineffectual yes men who, like Boris, seem to view the people they are meant to serve as afterthoughts. Nadhim Zahawi offered a fine example in April 2021, as the then vaccines secretary claimed that Johnson “has brought honesty, he has brought passion, he has brought commitment to politics.” Zahawi might have been covering for any number of Boris’ whoppers, but in this case, he was responding to questions about the refurbishment of Johnson’s No. 11 flat, for which the conservative party was fined for failing to report a donation of over £50,000. The donor of that contribution paid out over £110,000 in total to the refurbishment project, which Johnson later repaid when the project’s funding came to light. 

Here we are

Many books will be written about the Johnson premiership. Those books will be filled with examples of his lies, his self-centeredness, his use of racist, sexist, and homophobic language, and his unwillingness to accept the consequences of his wrongdoing. Now, he’s clinging to No. 10 while continuing to do what he does best, lie like there’s no tomorrow.

He spent the better part of the last two months denying that there were parties. When evidence made that position untenable, he claimed that the events were technically allowed while denying that he lied about the parties. When the police prove that the administration, including Boris, broke the rules, he’ll likely tell us why doing so was good for the nation.

When asked, Johnson declined to commit to resigning if the police fined him for the lockdown parties. Meanwhile, polls found roughly ⅔ of respondents wanted the PM to do so. (Opinium = 64%, YouGov = 63%, and Savanta = 69%) And 46% UK voters who chose Leave in the Brexit vote, and supported the Conservative party in 2019, now want him to go, while only 39% of them want him to stay. Why is he still in office if he can’t keep that group?

Further polling asked people whether they believe Johnson broke the lockdown rules (They do.) and whether they think he’s telling the truth about what happened (They don’t.). 

Boris has also seen ten key aides leave his side in the last eighteen months. Five of them went in the last week. Three, including his communications director, chief of staff, and principal private secretary, are reportedly involved in the partygate scandal. His policy chief, Munira Mirza, left for matters of conscience thanks to Johnson’s unfounded attack on Keir Starmer. The Tory party also lost Lord Agnew, who left over the Johnson administration’s handling of COVID-19 support programs. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid recently distanced themselves from Boris with public comments. Knives are undoubtedly being sharpened.

Harsh responses to the Partygate scandal came from all corners of parliament. Labour’s Jess Phillips asked people to consider whether anything like these events would have occurred under Theresa May’s leadership as she claimed, “The fish rots from the head.” Ed Miliband added, “If I went to a party, I know I went. I don’t need Sue Gray to tell me I went!” The SNP’s Ian Blackford also blamed Johnson as he called for the PM to go. LibDem peer Dick Newby called Johnson “morally vacuous” for blaming the people who work for him before adding: “He is their leader. He sees what they’re doing in his house. He joins in. Then blames them. Repugnant.”

Boris typically avoids such remarks from his party, but not this time. In an article he penned for the Daily Telegraph, Tory MP Nick Gibb said: “We need to face up to hard truths. To restore trust, we need to change the Prime Minister.” Former Tory MP, Anna Soubry, claimed that “If Theresa May was still our prime minister, there would be no rule-breaking whatsoever in Downing Street.” Another current Tory MP, Andrew Bridgen, says Johnson “has lost the moral authority to lead the country. And Rory Stewart, a former Tory MP who stepped down in 2019, opened a recent article stating, “Boris Johnson is a terrible prime minister and a worse human being.” 

Given the state of affairs, it’s no surprise that Johnson recently replaced his party’s whips with a shadow team. Doing so is a clear sign of a PM in distress. Whips are supposed to secure votes for their party. The only reason to replace the whips is when the PM feels that the party no longer has its whips working for them. Theresa May did the same as her days at No. 10 drew short. 

In sum, fifteen Tories have publicly called for Johnson to go, and nine have stated that they have submitted letters of no confidence. Unconfirmed reports claim that many more MPs have submitted letters, and one Tory MP anonymously contended that such a vote is now just a matter of time. As they put it, “What is happening right now is a consequence of the PM’s inability to listen, and his poor judgment of people.”

If the number of letters reaches fifty-four, it will initiate a vote to end Johnson’s premiership. The vote would require 180 of his party’s 359 MPs to vote against him to succeed. Over 100 are ready to do so, but with anything less, he’d be free to wreak havoc for another year before they could hold another vote. (Have I mentioned that the UK—like the US—might do well to rethink its system of government?)

John Major, the UK’s Tory Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, just gave a speech in which he politely excoriated Boris Johnson and his administration. There are several sharp points in the talk, and the only conclusion is that Boris must go. What else can be made of a longtime former PM and member of the same party stating clearly that Johnson and his officials “broke lockdown laws” and repeatedly dreamt up “brazen excuses.” As Major put it, the people were asked to believe the unbelievable, as ministers defended the indefensible. He also warned that the administration’s “distinctly shifty” appearance has consequences far beyond political unpopularity.

Make no mistake. Major was not calling for the administration to improve. Major spoke to sitting Tory MPs and told them it was time to act.

Boris Johnson’s premiership would have been a bad idea in relatively good times. These are not good times. It’s time to move on. Boris must go.