Bullish Boris is the man to lead Britain to a brighter future
AFTER the year he has had anyone might expect Boris Johnson to be at a low ebb, transmitting unease rather in the manner that Theresa May did in the dying days of her lamentable premiership.
Certainly his Left- wing critics would love to be able to tell a story of a prime minister fading away amid the economic and human wreckage ushered in by the pandemic and his failure to conclude a free trade deal with Brussels.
But that isn’t happening. Instead, for the first time since his very severe bout of Covid in April, the real Boris Johnson – the man who swept the country at the election a year ago – is suddenly back on the scene.
His upbeat tone yesterday when speaking to camera about the increasing likelihood of the post- Brexit transition period ending without a free trade agreement caused ripples of consternation in Brussels.
FIZZING with energy he declared there was now a “strong possibility” Britain would move to something “much more like an Australian relationship with the EU than a Canadian one”.
He added: “That does not mean it’s a bad thing… there are plenty of opportunities for the UK.” And he characterised this outcome as a “solution” rather than as a problem.
This was not the demeanour EU leaders were expecting from a British PM only three weeks away from disruption at ports and tariffs being levied on UK exports. So now they know that Britain is not bluffing and that they must either give ground or prepare to explain the negative consequences of impending barriers to the lucrative UK market to their own electorates.
Mr Johnson’s upbeat mood was helped by a very successful conference call with his Cabinet. Ministers were unanimous in backing his decision to go for No Deal unless the EU budged on key issues.
“He is doing really well – being much stronger than I would have expected. Everyone in the Cabinet is behind him, even the former Remainers,” said one Cabinet insider who has been critical of his performance in the summer and autumn.
And Mr Johnson’s restored vim and vigour has been noted by the public too, with new polling showing him stretching his advantage over Labour’s Keir Starmer in the leadership stakes. Pollster Redfield and Wilton found Johnson is 15 points ahead of Mr Starmer on being able to build a strong economy, 14 points ahead on standing up for the UK, 12 points ahead on tackling coronavirus, 10 points ahead on knowing how to get things done and five points ahead on being a strong leader.
Mrs May could only have dreamed of ratings like that during her own fruitless negotiations with Brussels in 2019.
This should remind us of the transformative impact a powerful leader can have. The British people are always ready to stand up for their country and to make sacrifices in the process, so long as they have faith that the person at the top has vision and guts.
It helps too that the world’s first mass coronavirus vaccination programme is taking place in Britain. Not only have we approved the Pfizer vaccine first and started administering it first, but we have tens of millions more doses of other vaccines in the pipeline too.
WHILE Downing Street is not quite ready to put it this way publicly, the fact is that we are on course to have achieved national herd immunity from Covid by early April. No other country in the world can say that. And if it is fair to berate the Government for things that went wrong with our response to Covid in the early days – which it is – then it is only fair also to congratulate it on this terrific achievement.
“We had a phase where everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” admits one senior Whitehall insider, “it was like that Shakespearian quote about sorrows not coming as single spies but in battalions. But the PM showed great resilience. He kept plugging on and now we can all see the prospect of better times ahead.”
Mr Johnson is perhaps a little long in the tooth to be branded a political “Comeback Kid”, but his sense of dynamism, his can- do mentality and his infectious confidence about our national future have returned in the nick of time.
There are undoubtedly still plenty of bumpy weeks in store on both the Covid and Brexit fronts as well as a huge financial repair job to begin in 2021.
But the country no longer feels it is drifting. There is once more a firm hand on the tiller and we sail on full of renewed hope for the future. Welcome back, Boris.
‘ His restored vim and vigour has been noted by the public’