Thursday 7 July 2022 01:09 AM DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The truth is Mr Johnson still stands head and shoulders ... trends now
What a peculiarly Tory and British drama it is. Boris Johnson, without question the most extraordinary politician of his generation, has the attributes to be a truly great prime minister.
But with the trickle of letters from Conservative MPs — ministers and backbenchers alike — publicly expressing an irretrievable loss of confidence in him becoming a flood, the clock seemed to be running inexorably down on his time in Downing Street.
Yet Mr Johnson is nothing if not a fighter. He’s clinging onto No10 with everything he has.
Having shaken up Britain for the better, he won’t give up power lightly, arguing that he has a direct mandate from 14 million voters.
Even a Cabinet delegation urging him to quit was dismissed with a flea in its ear (and a P45 in Michael Gove’s hand). Instead, the PM is digging in, drawing up a tax-cutting economic policy with new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and vowing to deliver for families struggling with soaring bills.
With the chaos engulfing him, is this the miracle that can save the master escapologist?
'Boris Johnson is nothing if not a fighter. He’s clinging onto No10 with everything he has'
His downfall would not only be a personal catastrophe, it would have a baleful effect on the entire country.
With his trademark optimism and buccaneering spirit, Mr Johnson set out a One Nation vision for transforming Britain’s fortunes.
What does it say about the febrile, politically deranged place Britain has become in 2022, where a leader with a thumping majority is the victim of a putsch from within his own side?
And equally, how absurd that the holder of the highest office in the land risks being toppled by events that are, compared with the seismic forces currently convulsing the world, essentially trivial?
Yes, the PM has made mistakes, misjudgments and misdemeanours. But let’s be honest, they have hardly been Watergate.
This sorry episode has all the hallmarks of one of Mr Johnson’s beloved classical Greek tragedies.
In that dramatic form, the hero always means well and the play usually begins with a string of successes. But because of shortcomings in his own character, he is eventually brought down — often by those he once regarded as friends.
There are distinct echoes of this in Mr Johnson’s betrayal. But there is one crucial difference.
'In a toe-curlingly pompous piece of attention-seeking, Sajid Javid tried to mirror Geoffrey Howe’s devastating resignation statement in 1990 which helped to topple Margaret Thatcher'
Instead of resulting in catharsis, this drama is almost guaranteed to end in bitter tears of acrimony and recrimination.
One of the ‘friends’ trying to deliver the fatal blow was, of course, former Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
In a toe-curlingly pompous piece of attention-seeking, he tried to mirror Geoffrey Howe’s devastating resignation statement in 1990 which helped to topple Margaret Thatcher.
So elevated was Javid’s moral high horse that he must have been suffering vertigo.
In reality, this was a transparent bid to portray himself as a leadership contender — a squeaky-clean alternative to a compromised PM.
It was nauseating sanctimony from a man who so patently wears his ambition on his sleeve.
In his peroration, he insisted: ‘I’m not one of life’s quitters.’
Pull the other one, Mr Javid! Twice he has flounced out of a Cabinet post in a huff — this time, disgracefully, as post-Covid NHS waiting lists hit record levels.
And speaking of dereliction of duty, what kind of Chancellor was his fellow Cabinet conspirator Rishi Sunak to effectively down tools during the worst cost-of-living crisis for a generation?
The truth is, Mr Johnson stands head and shoulders above almost all his would-be assassins.
