Where does the UK go next in a post-Boris era?
Critics say all the warning signs were there. As early as 18, Boris’s housemaster at elite Eton College wrote, “I think Boris honestly believes it’s churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else.” It was Boris’s disregard of the rules that endeared him to voters, and the same contempt for convention that brought him down in spectacular fashion.
In December 2019, the Conservatives were drunk on victory. Boris Johnson’s bumbling appeal had won over voters who had never voted Tory before. They had an 80-seat majority, a huge mandate to deliver Brexit and an ambitious plan to rejuvenate left-behind Northern towns that Labour had taken for granted.
When Covid hit, despite an underwhelming response by his administration, Johnson was given the benefit of the doubt by voters. The UK’s successful vaccine rollout propelled the Tories to victory in local elections last year. By party conference in October, Boris was master of all he surveyed: The Tories, despite being a midterm government with a 150,000 Covid death toll, were ahead in the polls, and he had complete control of his party.
The foot-shooting spree began in November, when the government attempted to override parliamentary rules to prevent Owen Paterson, an ally of Johnson, from being suspended for breaching lobbying rules. Downing Street followed a pattern that would be repeated over the next nine months: They made a decision that showed total disregard for the rules and instructed Conservative MPs to support it, only to perform a humiliating U-turn, infuriating the MPs.
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