22 THE WEEK • JULY 14, 2019
WORLD
BRITAINship has so far been methodical.
He has stayed on message and
has avoided major gaffes. Timothy
Heppell, who teaches British politics
at the University of Leeds, told THE
WEEK that Johnson could cause
offence with his off-the-cuff com-
ments. “Political opponents will try
to make mileage out of this and may
accuse him of racism and sexism.
This explains why his advisers have
limited his public appearances dur-
ing the leadership campaign,” said
Heppell.
Johnson once said that Hillary
Clinton looked like a “sadistic nurse
in a mental hospital”. While he was
Britain’s chief diplomat, he called
burqa-clad women “letter boxes”.
He called Africans “piccaninnies’
and the French “turds”. When Barack
Obama criticised Brexit, he said the
former US president hated Britain
because it once ruled Kenya, in a
clear reference to the Obama senior’s
nationality. Three years ago, he wrote
a limerick about Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan having sex
with a goat.
Johnson’s acerbic wit can hurt Brit-
ain’s foreign relations. Anu Sharma,
associate fellow at the Delhi-based
Centre for Air Power Studies, said, it
could be a double-edged sword for
even friendly countries like India,
although Johnson recently wrote to
Prime Minister Modi that he wanted
closer ties.
Johnson’s private life, too, has
been receiving increasing scruti-
ny. He seems to have survived the
latest fiasco involving a late night
domestic row with his girlfriend,
Carrie Symonds. Johnson has had
a tumultuous love life, with several
affairs and two marriages. Johnson
and his second wife, Marina Wheeler,
daughter of a British father and an
Indian-origin Sikh mother, are in the
process of getting a divorce. Johnson
has half a dozen children, including
one from an extramarital affair.
Despite Johnson’s overwhelminglead, the leadership contest is not
a done deal yet. Hunt has not given
up. Barring a last-minute implosion,
however, Johnson is likely to move
into 10 Downing Street by the end of
the month, when his real challenge
will begin.
Brexit, which killed the careers of
May and Cameron, could take John-
son down as well. The new deadline
for Britain to exit the EU is October
31, 2019. “Johnson has not explained
how he can secure amendments to
the deal, given the unwillingness of
the EU to contemplate this and the
lack of time to achieve that between
now and October,” said Heppell.While Johnson has made it clear
that he will go ahead with a no-deal
Brexit if needed, the parliament has
vetoed leaving without a deal.
Moreover, the Conservative Party
is facing an existential crisis. In the
European parliamentary elections
held in May, the Tories finished an
embarrassing fifth, while far right
leader Nigel Farage’s newly-formed
Brexit Party came first. Recent opin-
ion polls have shown that a signifi-
cant number of Conservative voters
prefer Farage to take up leadership of
their party. It is now up to Johnson to
find a way out of the mess.
And, he could just be the man
to do it. In August 2012, Johnson,
as mayor, was participating in a
promotional event for the London
Olympics. He rode a zip-wire, wear-
ing a helmet and carrying two small
British flags. While coming down, he
got stuck for about five minutes, even
as spectators filmed him hanging
midair comically. “If any other politi-
cian anywhere in the world was stuck
on a zip-wire, it would be a disaster,”
said Cameron, who was then prime
minister. “For Boris, it was an abso-
lute triumph.”
Johnson and his supporters hope
the luck holds this time, too.Despite Johnson’s
overwhelming lead,
the leadership
contest is not a done
deal yet. Jeremy
Hunt (in pic) has not
given up.AP