MPs are bad at choosing leaders

Michael Smith said that Boris Johnson’s days are numbered and doubts if he will be leading the Conservatives into the next General Election (April 21).

He could be right, but the reason for that might be driven by the results of the upcoming local elections where predictions have been made that the Conservatives might lose up to 800 seats.

Some might say, it serves them right, but if sending such a message to Boris Johnson is done by way of the local elections ballot box it will mean that many good Tory councillors, who like the great majority of us complied with the Covid regulations, will have paid the price for Boris Johnson’s failings.

If the local election results are really bad the number of Conservative MPs calling for him to go will no doubt increase, but they would be wise to recall the saying: ‘those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them.’

That is probably a misquote but it serves the purpose to make the point that when it comes to ousting their leaders MPs are notoriously bad at reading the mood of the electorate.

Winner of three elections, Mrs Thatcher, was ousted, only to be replaced by a leader who was not in the same league, who won one election and then heralded in Tony Blair and condemned the Conservatives to opposition for 13 years.

He too was a three times election winner, but was replaced by Gordon Brown who couldn’t manage to win even one and the Labour Party has been struggling ever since, even after Tory MPs chose Theresa May, who proved to be an electoral disaster.

Only time will tell if Boris Johnson is still the asset he once was, but Tory MPs should think very carefully before deciding if he has become a liability, or they could end up repeating the mistakes of the past.

Christopher Hudson-Gool