Boris Johnson Had the Worst Week Ever, and Things Could Get Worse
Defeated and deserted, Britain’s prime minister keeps raising the stakes: “I’d rather be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit.”
It began with a cute puppy and ended with a stinging family betrayal. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is determined to deliver Brexit on his own terms — by Oct. 31. If this week’s jaw-dropping moments are any indication, he will stop at nothing to get there — and his opponents will do the same to stop him. He’s taken on the mother of all Parliaments, the scene of late-night drama and humiliating defeats, and left a trail of destruction in his wake. By purging the ranks of Britain’s most successful political party, he no longer even has a majority. Brexit has turned friends into foes and torn the country apart. This week saw the implosion of the Tories — Brexit was meant to settle the question of where they stood on Europe, but at what cost?
History will surely remember this week in British politics. And it began like this...
Monday, September 2
Political tension was already high by Monday evening, when Johnson appeared outside 10 Downing Street. His decision to suspend Parliament had not gone down well so the prime minister walked up to the lectern to give a statement, his words almost drowned out by jeering protesters outside the gates. "I don't want an election, you don't want an election," he said.
No one really believed him. That day an abandoned Jack Russell with a misaligned jaw showed up to his London home, further stoking speculation that an election was in the works. His predecessor, Theresa May, was encouraged to get a dog to increase her appeal to voters.
Tuesday, September 3
The House prepares to sit for the first time since the summer break and the mood is febrile. Johnson is giving a statement on the Group of Seven meeting when he hesitates mid-sentence, watching Conservative member of Parliament Phillip Lee defect to the Liberal Democrats right in front of him. In only his second appearance in the House of Commons, Johnson’s wafer-thin governing majority had evaporated.
Hours later, with the government striving to avoid defeat in a crucial vote, arch-Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg delivered the viral moment of the political week. Plucked from the backbenches to become the leader of the House of Commons, he slumped across the front bench as the debate unfolded around him, looking bored. “Sit up, man!’’ one MP could be heard shouting. That night the government lost by 328 votes to 301.
There are all sorts of funny expressions and turns of phrase in the House of Commons. One of them is “the whip.” If you defy party orders, you may face the ultimate punishment: having the whip withdrawn. That means you get booted out of your party, though you stay on as an MP. For lifelong moderate Tories who were fine with Brexit but just could not go along with Johnson’s “do or die’’ approach, a shock was in store.
Retribution was swift. The 21 Conservatives who defied government orders and helped defeat the prime minister were promptly cast into exile by a vengeful Johnson and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings. Johnson himself had voted twice against Theresa May’s Brexit deal earlier this year, but rebellion by others would not be tolerated. The victims were high profile: former finance ministers, Ken Clarke and Phillip Hammond and most poignantly, Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill.
Wednesday, September 4
Unbelievably, Wednesday was Johnson’s debut at Prime Minister’s Questions. He swore for the occasion, describing Labour’s economic plans as “s**t or bust.” But it didn’t give him the upper hand. No account of this week would be complete without Commons Speaker John Bercow, best known for shouting “ORDER! ORDER!’’ to keep things civil in the chamber. He’s a colourful character and not exactly above the fray. He put Johnson in his place, in his own inimitable way, after a breach of protocol: “I am simply and politely informing the prime minister of the very long established procedure with which everybody including the prime minister must comply.’
Sir Nicholas Soames, no longer a Tory MP, laid into Johnson, accusing the prime minister and his allies — who voted against Theresa May’s Brexit deal earlier this year — of “serial dishonesty.” His voice crackling with emotion, Soames told the House he would not stand for re-election, bringing down the curtain on 37 years as an MP. His exile from the Tory party was lamented by Ruth Davidson, who quit as leader of the Scottish Conservatives before all this went down and who once was seen as a future Conservative leader.
There was no respite when it was time to vote in the evening. The so-called “rebel alliance” that sent the government to defeat 24 hours earlier held firm, smoothing the passage of a highly unusual piece of legislation proposed by backbench MPs that would force the prime minister to request a new Brexit delay.
Humbled and defeated, Johnson pressed the button marked “General Election,” asking the Commons to approve an early public poll. But distrustful opposition MPs refused to play along, with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn telling his troops to vote down Johnson’s plan. With a Commons majority of -43, but with no way to take the matter back to the people, Johnson was stuck. The prime minister known for his way with words called Corbyn a “chicken,” hours after branding him “a big girl’s blouse.”
Thursday, September 5
This was supposed to be the day Johnson’s grand election campaign began. It’s fair to say things didn’t go to plan. Brexit and politics have torn families apart, and in this case the Johnson tribe — six siblings with a complicated but strong bond. The painful split was between Boris, the eldest, and Jo, the youngest. One the face of the Leave campaign, the other a “Remainer,” almost a dirty word in a government populated by hardline “Leavers.” Jo accepted a job in his brother’s Cabinet but this week proved to be too much.
He had already quit May’s government to call for a second referendum. His second resignation had an even bigger impact, skewering his brother when he needed it least. Johnson remarked: “Jo and I haven’t seen eye to eye for a long time.”
Elections can be won by masterful media management, or lost by poor presentation. Johnson’s speech at a police academy in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, did not bode well for the looming campaign. After arriving an hour late, he delivered a politically-charged speech while standing in front of a group of police cadets. With Johnson still speaking, one cadet began to feel faint, eventually needing to sit down. Thrown off, Johnson wound down his speech in halting fashion, though he also delivered a memorable soundbite for the evening news bulletins, saying he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than go back to Brussels and ask for a delay to Brexit.
Friday, September 6
It is hard for a Tory — especially one promising the police more money — to get on their bad books. But Johnson did. West Yorkshire’s most senior police officer was not impressed and had this to say: “I was disappointed to see my police officers as a backdrop to the part of the speech that was not related to recruitment.”
By the end of a dramatic week Johnson was still talking tough, saying his opponents were making an “extraordinary political mistake.”
Theresa May had many bad weeks in Downing Street. This time, though, she could escape the maelstrom alongside her husband, perhaps with a glass of her favorite Welsh whisky to take the edge off. A loyal Tory, she voted with the government this week, but her smiles rather gave the game away. One has to wonder if the last prime minister beaten by Brexit isn’t enjoying seeing her onetime rival squirm.
