24 Britain The EconomistJuly 27th 2019
I
n boris johnson’sbiography of Winston Churchill, the author
deals with a number of accusations against his subject, includ-
ing the charge “that he didn’t really have real friends—only people
he ‘used’ for his own advancement.” This line, like many in the
book, could have been written as easily about the author as about
his subject; and the charge would be hard to rebut.
Mr Johnson has become prime minister largely because he is an
entertaining fellow who, on television and in print, makes people
laugh. In the past lots of voters liked him: during a London mayoral
race the Tories’ election guru, Sir Lynton Crosby, found that pic-
tures of Mr Johnson triggered feelings of affection even among
those who disagreed with his policies. These days only Brexit en-
thusiasts quiver when his blond mop heaves into view. But even
those who loathe the man concede that he has bags of personality.
At a time of national gloom and division, that is a great asset.
Yet although he is capable of immense charm, Mr Johnson is a
solitary figure. He has never been one for the aimless socialising
that builds friendships, and few former colleagues trust him. Sir
Max Hastings, who as editor of the Daily Telegraphhired Mr John-
son after he was fired by theTimesfor lying, recently wrote that
“there is room for debate about whether he is a scoundrel or mere
rogue, but not much about his moral bankruptcy”. It is telling that
for a profile of Mr Johnson, broadcast the evening he was appoint-
ed prime minister, the only person the bbccould find to speak fa-
vourably about him was his publicist.
Nor does Mr Johnson benefit from the domestic support which
Churchill enjoyed through his long and devoted marriage to Clem-
mie. Mr Johnson was ejected by his second wife, Marina Wheeler, a
barrister with whom he has four children, after a series of affairs
culminating in one with a Conservative Party public-relations offi-
cer which has proved so volatile that worried neighbours called
the police when the couple were having a row. It is unclear whether
she will be moving into 10 Downing Street with him.
Mr Johnson will not necessarily be able to lean on his birth fam-
ily, either. He comes from a clever, pushy clan of journalists and
politicians. “We’re like rats, basically,” wrote his sister Rachel, a
newspaper columnist. “In London, you’re never more than a few
feet from at least two Johnsons.” The siblings are fiercely loyal toeach other, but also, Boris aside, fiercely pro-European. Rachel was
a candidate for a Remain splinter group in the recent European
elections, brother Jo was a Remainer Tory minister and father
Stanley was a member of the European Parliament—so Boris’s re-
cent political trajectory has strained relations.
Mr Johnson does not have a gang of parliamentary chums and
supporters. He has spent only a decade as an mp, and when in Par-
liament was so busy making money by writing or speechifying
elsewhere that he never had much time for dull Westminster work,
such as sitting on committees. His fellow mps didn’t like that. And
although he is in great demand as an after-dinner speaker, his par-
liamentary performances have underwhelmed. Jollying along a
bunch of drunk bankers is a very different business to command-
ing the floor of the house.
But although Mr Johnson puts less work than most people do
into winning affection and approbation, he craves these things
more than most people—even most politicians—do. He is intense-
ly sensitive to criticism. This weakness leads to the gravest charge
his former boss, Sir Max, levels against him—“cowardice, reflected
in his willingness to tell any audience whatever he thinks most
likely to please, heedless of the inevitability of its contradiction an
hour later”—and which has already tripped him up.
During his campaign for the leadership, Mr Johnson promised
to leave the euby October 31st, “do or die”. He has rejected any ver-
sion of the Irish “backstop”, the default position which would keep
Britain, in effect, in the customs union. The euinsists on the back-
stop; the hard Brexiteers abhor it. If he sticks to these commit-
ments, the only way forward is to leave the euwithout a deal. Given
that everybody knew he was going to win the leadership contest
easily, Mr Johnson did not need to limit his room for manoeuvre
thus. But his yearning to be loved by the Eurosceptic extremists
who dominate his party’s membership led him into a trap the
hardliners had set for him.
For however passionately Mr Johnson wants to leave the Euro-
pean Union—which, given his historical willingness to adjust his
beliefs to circumstance, is probably not very—his interests are dif-
ferent to the hardliners’. Their priority is to leave the eu, and damn
the consequences; his is to stay in power. And the contingency
plans for leaving without a deal that the mandarins will show him
over the next few weeks—which, according to leaks, include im-
posing direct rule on Northern Ireland, averting widespread bank-
ruptcies and managing civil disorder—will make it painfully clear
how much could go wrong. He will be responsible for whatever
happens, and many voters will be very angry with him.Damned if you don’t
The alternative is for Mr Johnson to renege on those Eurosceptic
commitments, get some wriggle-room from the euon the back-
stop—putting lipstick on the pig, as a putative attempt to improve
on the deal his predecessor did with the euis widely described—
and use his undoubted charm to sell to Parliament the porker that
it refused three times to buy from his predecessor. Given his re-
cord, nobody, and especially not the Eurosceptics with whom he
has surrounded himself, would be greatly astonished by such a be-
trayal, but they would be very angry with him.
For a man who hates to be hated, neither is an attractive pros-
pect. The only way of avoiding both would be to hold an election
before October 31st. Very likely he would gain unwelcome fame as
the shortest-lived prime minister ever, but—who knows?—maybe
he could persuade the voters to love him. 7Bagehot The loneliness of Boris Johnson
The hazards of having a prime minister who hates to be hated