48 Britain The Economist January 15th 2022
Whatdidyouexpect?
B
oris johnsonlies often and easily. It is the hallmark of his ca
reer. He was fired from his first job, at the Times, for fabricating
a quote. As a condition of becoming editor of the Spectatorhe
promised not to stand as an mp, and then promptly did just that.
As a shadow minister, he was fired by Michael Howardfor lying
about an affair. (He later divorced after a few more.) While mayor
of London, he said numerous times that he would not stand in the
2015 election, only to turn up as a candidate in Uxbridge.
Lying about attending a garden party at Downing Street in May
2020, at the height of lockdown, is just the latest in a very long list.
When public anger grew, mps protested with all the sincerity of
Captain Renault entering a gambling den in Casablanca. Douglas
Ross, a Scottish mp who voted for the prime minister in the Con
servative leadership election, labelled the prime minister’s posi
tion “untenable” and demanded he quit. Why did such defenders
of truth once back a man they knew to be an enthusiastic liar? Be
cause Mr Johnson is, in his own way, a man of his word.
When he was drumming up support for his bid for party leader,
his pitch was simple: back me, keep your seat, defeat Jeremy Cor
byn and do Brexit. And it all came true. Mr Corbyn was crushed
and the biggest Conservative majority in three decades followed.
In that election Mr Johnson promised two big things and did both.
The nhs would be showered with cash, which it has been. And he
would do a deal with the eu, which he did.
It was not a good deal, but it was quick and it was clear. Coming
after a negotiation with the eu that lacked both speed and simplic
ity, it is little surprise that voters jumped at it. Mr Johnson’s prede
cessor, Theresa May, had obfuscated, attempting legalistic contor
tions to avoid Brexit’s brutal simplicities. Labour’s Brexit position
was, in the words of one shadow cabinet minister, “bollocks”. Mr
Johnson’s deal hobbles British business for little or no gain, be
yond a point of principle. But it is, no more and no less, what he
said he would do.
Political lying was not invented by Mr Johnson in the Brexit
campaign, comforting though that idea might be. Indeed, the mis
leading claims of the Leave campaign sometimes revealed awk
ward truths. When it pointed out that Turkey was in the long pro
cess of joining the eu, for example, Remainers cried foul becauseothercountries were likely to block its accession. Yet Mr Cameron
could have promised to veto Turkish membership of the eu, and
did not. Turkey joining the club was a longstanding British policy.
In politics, integrity is almost inevitably followed by hypocrisy.
Politicians with firm moral centres can crack. Gordon Brown was
feted as a son of the manse while hurling handsets at people’s
heads. Tony Blair runs an institute dedicated to openness while
accepting money from despots. Sir Keir Starmer stood for Labour
leader by pitching himself as Mr Corbyn in a suit, and then ditched
the leftiest proposals once he had won. Mr Johnson, by contrast,
does not even pretend to be a family man, despite having a few of
them. He has not pretended to be anything but a powerhungry
cynic either. A lack of integrity becomes a form of integrity.
A competent administrator never lurked beneath that mop of
thinning hair. Occasionally, a journalist has claimed otherwise in
a breathless profile; Mr Johnson has not. Those who work closely
with him cannot say they were fooled into thinking he was a loyal
boss. His time as prime minister has been marked by the defenes
tration of aides. When trouble strikes Mr Johnson, deputy heads
roll. Being a civil servant rather than a political appointee offers
no protection. Those who help him out, for example by chipping
in for new curtains in Number 10 to keep his new wife happy, end
up enmeshed in scandal.
No one can claim they were not warned about Mr Johnson. He
is in no sense a mystery. He is the subject of several biographies
and for the past three decades has shared his views about the
world in newspaper columns and articles. If he is ever silenced by
ministerial responsibility, a highprofile relative can fill the gap
with more Johnson trivia. Throughout his career he has left a trail
of giggling journalistic colleagues with a cherished Boris story to
be whipped out on special occasions, no matter how long ago or
dull. The content of his character was known and yet people still
saw fit to put him in power.
If voters are souring on Mr Johnson, they only have themselves
to blame. The prime minister is not a monarch. In 2019 he won
43.6% of the vote, the biggest share since Margaret Thatcher. Mr
Johnson is in Downing Street because just under half the country
ticked a box next to a Conservative’s name. Voters are adults. They
knew what they were voting for, and they voted for what they got.
It is common to blame the rise of Mr Johnson on “Have I Got
News For You”, a bbc1 news quiz on which he was a frequent guest.
Ian Hislop, one of the team captains, has a tart reply: “If we ask
someone on and people like them, that is up to people.” Mr John
son is not a boil that can be lanced, at which point Britain’s body
politic will recover. British politics, its systems and culture, dete
riorated to the point where an honest liar proved attractive. Mr
Johnson benefited from chaos created by others. Small lies, big truths
Those mps who helped put Mr Johnson in power must now decide
whether to sack him for sins he has never hidden. Their choice
will be made by calculating whether their voters still want him.
Popularity was all that he promised, and he delivered it—until
now. If his rise is depressing, his potential fall offers a glimmer of
hope. British voters have, at last, begun to grow tired of Mr John
son’s record of honest lies. A less cynical politics may prosper and
populism become unpopular. But optimism should be tempered.
mps would not hesitate to keep Mr Johnson if he, inturn,helped
them keep their seats. If those who put the prime ministerin pow
er bring him down, they do so to absolve themselves.nBagehot
The prime minister, in his own way, is Britain’s most honest politician