ANALYSIS

LEO McKINSTRY

AFTER all the gloom over Brexit in recent years, those yearning for British independence have something to celebrate.

Boris Johnson’s landslide victory means Downing Street will be inhabited by a figure who not only believes in freedom from EU rule but was a key architect of the 2016 referendum victory. There is now a chance our withdrawal could be as early as the end of October.

But the celebrations for Johnson’s triumph will be muted. He has a daunting challenge that will require all his optimism, resolution and humour.

Not since Jim Callaghan took over from HaroldWilson in 1976 during the dark days of soaring inflation and trade union domination, has a new prime minister inherited a tougher legacy.

Lacking any Commons majority, Johnson presides over a badly split Parliamentary party, with the antiBrexiteers in open revolt over no-deal.

Their determination to cause trouble has been demonstrated this week by a string of high-profile ministerial resignations, led by Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan and Justice Secretary David Gauke.

And next week the Parliamentary arithmetic looks set to worsen with the likely Tory loss of the Brecon and Radnor by-election.

Yet Johnson could do far better as prime minister than his critics predict. Through his ebullient personality, he will transform the Brexit process from a damage limitation exercise into a drive for national freedom. Like his hero Winston Churchill, Johnson has a gift for capturing the public’s imagination. The formidable, sometimes comedic, resources of his rhetoric will now be mobilised for Brexit.

It is absurd to pretend, as some claim, that he is nothing more than a clown, unable to complete his paperwork and unfit for office.As foreign secretary, he organised the powerful diplomatic response to the Salisbury chemical attack, and as Mayor of London, he ran the capital so successfully that he was re-elected in a Labour-dominated city. He has the ability to inspire and delegate, skills where Theresa May was deficient.

The powerful mandate from this election, in which Johnson won almost two-thirds of the votes, means he can start the reunification of his party.And now that the anti-Brexiteers have gone, he can build a more cohesive Cabinet.

The notion of collective responsibility will be restored after years of erosion.

Johnson will be further helped by the chronic ineptitude of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

For all the obstacles, he could yet defy the odds and win his place in history.

Like his hero Churchill, he has a gift for capturing the public’s imagination