Boris Johnson’s downfall is a story of wasted potential
To sum up Boris Johnson’s political career you need only listen to Sir Nicholas Soames – the grandson of the outgoing PM’s hero Winston Churchill.
“Boris is a chancer, he is a chancer … but that doesn’t alter the fact he’s extremely agreeable to have dinner with,” Soames once told BBC great Michael Cockerell.
This quote neatly encapsulates why he was such a magnificent vote winner and why his premiership also ended in abject failure. In his prime, Johnson had extraordinary qualities of political stardom and was able to connect with people across the country in a way few others can.
He was seen as someone who was simultaneously erudite and clownish, eloquent and crassly funny. With these qualities, and perhaps because of them, also came his worst flaws – the intrinsic dishonesty, the lack of any clear ideological beliefs, the inability to make tough decisions and the penchant for self-sabotage.
Put simply – the bloke is a bit of a chancer.
It is because of these immutable flaws that he was never going to be forced out thanks to an unpopular policy à la Magaret Thatcher or through the orderly transition of power at the ballot box. It was always going to be through the similar types of scandals that have plagued his entire adult life.
In just a year he was embroiled in scandals about not disclosing donations, ignoring sexual assault claims against an ally for political gain, breaking his own Covid-19 rules and trying to rig the parliamentary disciplinary process to stop the suspension of one his own MPs.
Johnson’s place in history is sealed thanks to Brexit, but he leaves the political stage as someone who never lived up to his potential. What a shame that someone so mercurial and politically adroit squandered an 80-seat majority and burnt out in just three years.
But, perhaps, it could never be any other way.