Boris: Can May get rid of him?

Johnson reveals Tory fault lines

IT SPEAKS volumes that Theresa May’s meet and greet with President Donald Trump at the United Nations was probably more straightforward, and less stressful, than her awkward meeting with Boris Johnson following a turbulent 96 hours since the Foreign Secretary broke ranks over Brexit.

Even though Mr Johnson tried to draw the sting out of the controversy by claiming “we are a nest of singing birds”, such a vainglorious Brexiteer must have known that his provocative article in the Daily Telegraph would create the impression that he’s on political manoeuvres of his own.

And even though the Prime Minister tried to play down speculation about the size of the rift by saying ‘Boris is Boris’, the fact that she’s had to indulge her Foreign Secretary’s disloyalty appears to illustrate the invidiousness of her own leadership.

As Tory grandee Ken Clarke noted wryly, Mr Johnson would have “been sacked in any normal circumstances” and that the Cabinet needs to take collective responsibility for its Brexit negotiating position.

Of course, the irony is that it is Mr Clarke, a former Chancellor, who continues to oppose Brexit legislation in the Commons and whose enthusiastic support in favour of the European Union explains, in part, the fault lines that have been widening in the Tory party since Margaret Thatcher’s third term 30 years ago.

Yet, given his experience of previous splits at the heart of Downing Street, he does have a point – why has the Foreign Secretary been exempted from such a profound foreign policy issue that will reverberate for decades to come? And, if Mr Johnson feels that he cannot make a positive contribution to negotiations, why is he still in such an important job?

As such, Mrs May needs to calculate whether she, and the country, are better off with Boris Johnson in the Cabinet – or not – because Brexit is complicated enough without the past week’s posturing and analogies ranging from back seat drivers to singing birds.