Sour-faced Johnson may have played Churchill’s Orange Card, but he looked like he was sucking lemons

HIS gait was stooped, he had a hang dog, grumpy demeanor. He was plump and carried a haughty air. There was also star quality. Boris Johnson appeared to be aping the physical tics of his great hero Winston Churchill in Belfast yesterday.

Churchill praised those in Northern Ireland who supported the Allied cause in World War II, but he could also be very dismissive of the region. He once referred to the ‘dreary spires’ of Ulster in a House of Commons speech. As Mr Johnson’s experience of Belfast yesterday consisted of airport to Crowne Plaza and back to the airport, he may have nothing to go on besides Winston’s assessment.

For a while on the stage at the DUP conference yesterday he was lavish in his praise for his friends here, but there was no effort to get amongst the delegates.

Indeed, any time I bumped into him his unhappiness at being present seemed palpable. He trudged grumpily between holding room and meeting room and conference room with Arlene Foster (which would hardly improve your mood).

On the two occasions I saw him venture out into the general area he moved rapidly, scowling when asked for a chat. There was none of the bonhomie you expect from a frontline politician. No votes here, I guess.

He is a showman after all, and the charisma was reserved for the stage at the Crowne Plaza. There, he rambled about bridges between Scotland and Northern Ireland and raised laughs about the EU.

The arch Brexiteer was here to do some serious business too. Brexiteers, not

blessed with unity or coherent strategy in Britain, could do with some support. Again there was some influence from the Churchill family at play.

In 1886, when prime minister William Gladstone decided the time had come for Home Rule for Ireland, the former Tory chancellor Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father, saw an opportunity to play politics with the Unionists.

‘I decided some time ago that if [Gladstone] went for Home Rule, the Orange card would be the one to play...’ he said. There was no Home Rule in 1886 and, since then, Tory politicians, in times of strife, have often turned to the Unionists to inhibit political advancement in Britain. Once again a Tory politician is seeking to use the intransigence of the Unionists to further his own .

It was also Randolph who coined the phrase ‘Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right’.

We will see. Ulster will fight along with Mr Johnson against the Brexit deal being rubberstamped today in Brussels. Whether they are right, or successful, remains to be seen.