Unravelling Johnson’s downfall and d
Boris Johnson’s messy political legacy of lies, scandals and delivering Brexit to his base
Boris Johnson, the now outgoing Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol Sir Winston Churchill and be remembered as a leader of consequence.
He aspired to greatness and desired to stay in office longer than the 11 years enjoyed by Conservative icon Margaret Thatcher.
It wasn’t to be.
Instead, on July 7, 2022, Johnson announced that less than three years after becoming Prime Minister, he was resigning and would remain in office only until a successor emerged. It marks a stunning repudiation of a leader who had delivered Brexit to his supporters and scored a major electoral mandate a mere two and half years previously.
The scandal that brought his downfall wasn’t Johnson’s first. Indeed, throughout his career — and time in office — Johnson has been regarded as a political Houdini, skilled at political survival and endlessly able to rebound from mishaps.
But even he could not overcome the succession of scandals in recent months, not least “Partygate,” which involved revelations around his Government’s repeated and brazen ignoring of its own Covid-19 lockdown rules.
In the end it was his handling of a tawdry affair involving the promotion of a Member of Parliament accused of serious sexual wrongdoing that proved the final straw. That scandal precipitated a rash of Cabinet resignations that made clear Johnson could no longer rely on the support of his own party.
Yet, Johnson’s legacy will not be confined to the scandals.
His tenure coincided with major challenges in the UK. Some, like the Covid19 pandemic and the outbreak of war in
Europe, were not of his making. Others, notably Brexit, were of his own hand.
Johnson and Brexit will forever be inextricably bound.
Johnson had long been a prominent political figure before Britain’s exit from Europe came to dominate UK politics. Aside from serving as an MP, he was also the mayor of London as well a well-known media personality. Throughout, Johnson, a fiscal conservative by nature, developed a reputation for being polarising — witty and charming to some, but dishonest and untrustworthy to others.
He was long talked of as a future Prime Minister. But it was the 2016 Brexit referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Union that eventually propelled Johnson to power. He became the face of the Leave campaign, at times taking liberties with the truth to make his case for exiting the EU. While he did not become Prime Minister immediately after the UK public opted to exit the EU, his time would come three years later.
When Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in summer 2019, weakened by major divisions over how to implement Brexit within the Conservative Party, Johnson seized his chance.
He promised to “Get Brexit Done” and to end the major deadlock in British politics over what sort of relationship the country would have with the EU. On that front, he delivered.
The December 2019 election was a resounding success for Johnson, earning a substantial majority for the Conservative Party and enabling him to force through his vision of Brexit.
His brand of populism, charm, disregard for rules and effective communication not only shored up the Conservative base in that election, but also helped attract many traditional left-wing Labour voters, securing a clear mandate for his party.
With that victory in hand, Johnson was free to complete the formal departure of the UK from the EU on January 31, 2020. Later that year, after tumultuous talks, his
Government negotiated the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU — defining the future relations between the UK and its European partners.
Brexit was and remains very divisive in the UK. But neither supporters nor opponents would deny how consequential that decision was, and it could not have happened without Johnson’s involvement.
Any hopes that Johnson could bask in the glory of Brexit came quickly crashing down within weeks of it becoming a reality.
The start of the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the situation for the UK. Johnson and his Government fumbled its initial pandemic response, acting slowly and in a lacklustre manner — Johnson himself was absent for some of the crucial meetings called to discuss the pandemic in its early days.
According to a government report released in October 2021, the Government’s decision to delay a strict lockdown allowed the virus to circulate widely and caused many thousands of additional deaths. And it nearly killed Johnson himself, who spent a week in the hospital in April 2020.
While Johnson recovered from his own bout with the virus, his Government also managed to steady the ship.
It introduced a series of stringent lockdowns and restrictions in the following year and presided over a successful vaccination rollout.
But these same Covid-19 restrictions would also ironically highlight one of Johnson’s main character traits: a disregard for rules that would eventually lead to his political undoing.
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