Will Boris Johnson return to 10 Downing Street? In the last six years, Britain has seen four prime ministers resigning before they could complete their terms. And the very fact that there are many voices in the ruling Conservative Party asking Johnson to come back is an indication of the mess that both the country and the party are in. Johnson was forced out only three and a half months ago.
As all of us now know, Liz Truss had the shortest tenure ever for a British prime minister. In fact, the number of days she held that job—45—is less than what the Conservative Party took—59 days—to go through its procedures and elect her as Johnson’s successor.
Truss’ crash-and-burn has been spectacular by any standards. It takes real talent to accomplish so much in barely six weeks—send a country’s stock and bond markets into a panic, tank the currency, receive an unprecedented rebuke from the International Monetary Fund, enrage a vast majority of the people, be forced to sack two top members of the cabinet, do a complete U-turn on a proudly announced budget, and have party colleagues nearly resorting to physical violence with one another inside Parliament over the passing of a bill.
Also read: Why Liz Truss is entitled to a $129,000 lifelong pension per year
Even as jokes and memes about Truss flooded social media, the consumer group Which? claimed, based on a survey, that half of UK households were either skipping meals or finding it hard to put healthy meals on the table due to a sharp rise in the cost of living.
Though this seems a bit too apocalyptic to be true, the fact is that real wages have now been stagnant for years, while inflation has risen to a 40-year high, with energy prices more than tripling this year, mainly due to the war in Ukraine.
Many in the Conservative Party must be thinking: After all, what did Boris do wrong other than throw a few parties without masks or other precautions while the rest of the country was under strict Covid lockdown? And he did get fined by the police for it—a first for a sitting prime minister. Some Tory members of parliament are already tweeting with the hashtag #BORISorBUST.
Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, Truss’ closest competitors the last time round, are in the race. Sunak, chancellor of the exchequer under Johnson, had specifically warned against the tax cuts that brought Truss down. But he is also seen by some as an opportunistic back-stabber since it was his resignation from the cabinet that triggered the collapse of the Johnson government. There is also the matter of his skin colour.
Mordaunt, a former public relations executive and an unexceptional politician, is reportedly very popular among grassroot Conservative Party workers.
Johnson has always been a colourful but controversial figure. Erudite and articulate, he preferred to cloak his intelligence and cunning under a mildly bumbling demeanour. But a certain recklessness in his behaviour—his critics see it as a presumption of being above the law—came to define his three years as prime minister, even though he led his party to a landslide victory in the 2020 elections.
Caught lying several times in his public statements on matters small and grave, what finally did him in was the revelation—and he had lied repeatedly about this—that he and his posh pals had been hosting parties while all of Britain was locked down during the pandemic. Sunak resigned, though only after he had registered the domain name ready4rishi.com for his prime ministerial campaign. His resignation sparked an astonishing uprising, with 57 ministers quitting in three days, leaving Johnson no choice but to leave.
Yet, within four months of his departure, his party seems rudderless and confused, after having been in power for 22 years. The next prime minister will not only have to deal with the problems facing the country but will also need to rejuvenate a party riven by infighting, which common citizens are fed up with. Though the general election is due only in 2025, many Britons apparently want an early one. And an opinion poll carried out on Friday by survey firm PeoplePolling found 53 percent saying they would vote for the Labour Party if the election were held right now. Just 14 percent opted for the Tories.
One does not know if Johnson is interested in having another go. And even if he is willing, a majority of his party colleagues may not back him. It also remains to be seen whether the people of Britain have forgiven him for his transgressions. If he does return, the most important question will be whether he has learnt to conduct himself in a less unruly manner than the way he combs his hair. But for the rest of the world, it will surely be fun to watch. Whatever his flaws and sins, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, flamboyant blond man of Turkish descent, is nothing if not entertaining.
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