Is Boris Johnson returning to politics? Former Prime Minister presents his memoirs

London. An extract from an old interview with Boris Johnson recently made the rounds on social media. In 2013, when he was Mayor of London, he was asked on private news radio LBC how much it cost to travel on the Tube between the two stops Angel and London Bridge, four stops apart, all in the same fare zone . Johnson initially reacts confidently and wants to look at a rate table, but then becomes completely confused and ends up stuttering.

Do you remember what you are doing, Mr. Mayor, asks moderator Nick Ferrari after a good two minutes? As mayor, Johnson was also officially responsible for local transport company Transport for London – he should have at least understood the fares he was approving.

Critics complain: this is far from being the only thing that the conservative has not understood in his political career. When Johnson resigned as prime minister in 2022 at the request of his party, at first only a small circle of elite Tory leaders appeared to mourn him, while the rest breathed a sigh of relief.

Memories for Johnson's return?

Times are changing: since Johnson's resignation, the party has exhausted two other prime ministers, lost the last general election under Rishi Sunak and, in the view of some political observers, is drifting towards a split. It is precisely in this phase that Boris Johnson is currently looking with a little mischief at the customers of British bookstores since the cover of his new book Unleashed, as if he wanted to ask: do you miss me?

Memoirs of a Clown: Boris Johnson's book, Unleashed, was published in the UK earlier this month.

Source: Getty Images

Some already fear and hope that Johnson could be planning a political comeback with his memoir. The sixty-year-old intensively addresses a number of popular topics without worrying about any form of label. Just like we've known him for years. Johnson claims that Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022, suffered from bone cancer. Buckingham Palace never provided any information about this, and even if Johnson actually knew the truth, he should never have published it for protocol reasons. This is not the only slight in the 784-page book.

Johnson narrowly escaped death

Johnson continued to write that he had tried to persuade Prince Harry, who had emigrated to the United States, to stay. In addition, he narrowly escaped death during his first corona illness. The pandemic hit the UK so hard because Johnson, as prime minister, initially pursued the strategy of herd immunity, which proved incompatible with Britain's struggling healthcare system.

Corona in general: he has never celebrated lockdown parties in the literal sense of the word, Johnson emphasizes. An assertion that a parliamentary committee saw differently shortly before his departure and which was proven: the Partygate affair was one of the main reasons for the Prime Minister's resignation.

“Getting Brexit done”: Johnson was at the forefront of the Brexit campaign.

Source: Getty Images

Do readers agree with Johnson's vision? Regardless, the left-liberal London Guardian newspaper immediately ridiculed his book as a clown memoir. Boris Johnson shows how not to write a political memoir, added the weekly Economist. And the Times, which tends to be conservative, also seemed sober: Johnson's memoir was an important historical document but not exactly valuable.

The idea that Johnson's book offers anything that could be described as insight is ridiculous, says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, when asked. It's all about obsessively apologizing in the hopes that he can get back into the fight, complete with a few tired jokes. Bale has written several books on British political parties and written for London newspapers such as the Financial Times and the Guardian. Everything Johnson says and does is aimed at a) making huge amounts of money and b) making a comeback like his hero Churchill, a man he has never been able to compare himself to, even if it doesn't. did not prevent him from doing so. socket.

Johnson, born in New York, was known early on for primarily marketing himself. The former student at elite Eton College had built a reputation as a journalist for never being too picky about the truth. He failed as an intern at the Times after falsifying quotes. He later wrote for the Daily Telegraph, mainly for the European Parliament in Brussels, but it quickly turned out that most of his stories were made up or that the author had at least distorted the facts.

In 2016, Johnson took the lead in the Brexit movement, where he was also continually proven to have made false claims. After the victory of the Vote Leave campaign and the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, Johnson decided not to become his direct successor. Instead, he left it to the less successful Theresa May to complete the exit from the European Union, which at the time seemed impossible. As expected, this failed and Johnson was able to present himself as the savior of Brexit.

Many still admire Johnson

Does the Conservative Party, fundamentally divided, now offer the right ground for a Johnson comeback? Expert Bale at least sees signs of it, namely the next president. What gives Johnson hope is that the new party leader is unlikely to give the impression that he can win the next election. Nor will he succeed in convincing voters to turn away from Nigel Farage. The leader of the right-wing Reform UK party and former leader of the Brexit Party won massive votes from the Conservatives in the last general election. Bale believes something else is working in Johnson's favor: surveys of party members show many still admire him, unlike the British public.

In pollster YouGov's quarterly popularity index, Johnson currently ranks second among conservative politicians with 41 percent approval, ahead of former Finance Secretary Laura Trott (42 percent). ).

There are some arguments for a Johnson return, says Bale: he could fill a gap in British politics as a charismatic leader who inspires optimism and a cult following, especially in comparison with our gray prime minister, more ordinary. Critics often say that the new head of government, Keir Starmer of the social-democratic Labor Party, lacks charisma. Many believe he was able to achieve a landslide victory in the general election, mainly due to the weakness of the Conservatives.

Are British conservatives threatened with a development similar to that of the German left, namely secession? No, says politics professor Bale. The reason could be different: especially on the right fringe, different parties have long been exploring the electoral potential of the Conservatives, first and foremost the radical populist Farage.

This weekend, the Conservatives want to present their new leader, elected online by their members in October, at a party conference, Boris Johnson was not a candidate. Since the summer, the two radicals Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have emerged as candidates in an internal party competition. Political observers have an idea of ​​where the Tories among them could go: both candidates are seen as belonging to the right-wing camp.