Boris Johnson is not the leader that Britain needs

Dangling from the spider’s web of Brexit, the United Kingdom finds itself caught in a once-in-a-lifetime, existential crisis.

The people of that embattled nation need the kind of rescuer who, if everyone’s lucky, comes along once in a lifetime. They need a guide, a unifier, an architect and a builder. They need a statesman of the stature of their Second World War saviour, Winston Churchill.

Unfortunately, this time around they’re getting Bojo the clown. We refer to the unpredictable, outlandish, mop-headed Boris Johnson, that blustering pro-Brexiter who this week became the U.K.’s latest prime minister. He could also be its last.

Unless he quickly reveals strengths he has until now kept hidden, Johnson will not prove to be the once-in-alifetime leader this moment in history demands. And his country will suffer for it.

On Wednesday he declared that Britain will leave the European Union on Oct. 31 — with or without a deal. And with that Johnson set his country on a collision course with economic and political disaster.

The odds are almost nil that he can wrest from the EU a deal more favourable to Britain than the one hammered out by his predecessor, Theresa May. EU leaders insist the negotiations are done. For them, it’s the existing deal or none at all.

To make things worse, Johnson is particularly illsuited to woo the Europeans, who have long been offended by his brash, arrogant ways.

Meanwhile, considering that the fractured House of Commons has repeatedly failed to pass the deal the EU has accepted, it’s a long-shot those lawmakers would back an alternative concocted by Johnson.

So that leaves everyone with the no-deal Brexit the new PM seems perfectly willing to accept. But crashing out of Europe would have dire consequences for British industry, retail, trade, tourism — and ordinary Britons.

Anyone trying to travel or ship goods between the U.K. and the EU would, in the short term, encounter chaos. With Britain suddenly facing EU external tariffs, the price of European goods in the U.K. would soar. Many British products would be rejected by the Europeans until new rules were set, while panicky manufacturers would flee Britain.

Such a scenario is frightening, not just for the U.K. but its friends and allies, like Canada, which would likely have to negotiate new trade deal with Britain.

We see little hope Johnson could shepherd the U.K. through such turmoil. The fact that upon becoming prime minister he sacked half of his cabinet shows he’s not open to opposing viewpoints. The United Kingdom — where 42 per cent of voters in the 2016 Brexit referendum chose to remain in the EU — is deeply polarized. Johnson is showing neither the inclination nor ability to bring it together with a Brexit compromise all can live with.

For the sake of British democracy and unity, there should be a second referendum to let voters decide whether Johnson’s eventual Brexit plan is acceptable. Yet Johnson has so far ruled out this option and seems prepared to prorogue Parliament so he can drag the U.K. out of the EU on his terms.

That kneecapping of parliamentary supremacy would provoke a constitutional crisis that could destroy Johnson’s Conservative party. Far more serious, it could convince Northern Ireland and Scotland, which both chose to remain in Europe and loathe a no-deal Brexit, to make their own exit — from the United Kingdom.

All this explains the widespread pessimism that greeted Johnson’s rise to the Prime Minister’s Office. There’s a new captain at the wheel. The ship is still on the rocks.