Paint the land blue and end nightmare at No.11
IT’S GENERATED a lot of heat, shouting, puce-faced rage and indignation plus seemingly endless headlines – but now is the time to put the paintbrush down for a second and have a rest in a £5,900 armchair to ponder reality. Whether you call it “Flatgate”, “Wallpapergate” or any other gate, the makeover of the PM’S apartment above No11 Downing Street, has been embarrassing and probably even politically costly to Boris Johnson.
But be in little doubt, Boris’s fortunes will be determined over the next week or so, not by the row about what he might, or might not, have said last October and who might, or might not, have paid for the flat facelift.
Before setting out the importance of the Hartlepool by-election and devolved and local elections, let’s remind ourselves of what precisely this PM has achieved and what affords him a huge amount of leeway with the Tory faithful and much of the rest of the country.
Firstly – and for many most significantly – he was the man who “got Brexit done”. In the eyes of those who believed in it with a passion, that is an incalculable boost.
For them, the parliament Boris blasted out of existence had become an open sewer filled with schemers and plotters bent on thwarting the “will of the people”.
Pompous, out of touch politicians claimed to speak on behalf of the nation and their constituents – despite on many occasions representing areas that voted Leave!
Are you really surprised that someone with the guts and cunning to beat that vile crew at their own game might sometimes lose his temper or say the occasional inappropriate expression or oath? Damned straight he might.
Showing again how close he was to the nation’s mood, he then placed his trust in the Great British public and was rewarded with a stonking 80-seat majority, something unheard of for every Tory PM since Margaret Thatcher.
On the way, he took the scalps of 20 Labour strongholds and left the so-called Redwall in dusty ruins.
Which leads us to Hartlepool – a Labour stronghold for around 60 years. Even the surge of Tory support at the last general election from Redcar to Sedgefield was repelled at this port town in County Durham, all of which makes the reported narrowness in the polls so crucial. Hold this, and Sir Keir Starmer and his supporters can justly say they’ve stopped the rot.
But if Boris pulls it off, the row over wallpaper and a drinks trolley will be swiftly wheeled away.
Until his “Home Under The Hammer” scandal, he had every chance. Even before you look at the vaccine bounce, this was an area that voted heavily for Brexit – and prospective Labour MP, Dr Paul Williams, once supported the People’s Vote for a fresh EU referendum. Surely that’s a leg up for Boris.
Then there’s a vaccine rollout that is the envy of Europe and much of the rest of the world. That success cannot be overestimated, not least when you remember that if Sir Keir and most of the Labour Party had their way we’d be locked in a queue with 27 other EU states instructing lawyers instead of protecting citizens.
As well as Hartlepool, all eyes will be on the local elections in which some 28 million people vote for nearly 5,000 positions of local power. Typically this is an area where the Lib Dems do disproportionally well, and so this will also be a test for their new leader, Sir Ed Davey.
If Boris was to be a hit in Hartlepool, and then paint the land blue in local councils too, it would surely be the stuff of dreams for the Conservatives – and the opportunity for him to put the Nightmare Of Downing Street over his mishandled makeover behind him.