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LONDON • Described as dejected and dogmatic even by his supporters, Boris Johnson is going through a torrid time in his tumultuous tenure as prime minister, and the worst may be yet to come.
The coronavirus pandemic is testing all world leaders. But Britain has suffered more than any other country in Europe, and now the prime minister is facing a revolt from fellow conservatives accusing him of ruling by dictation.
If the Covid-19 crisis has dictated the need for emergency policies on the fly, the government has had plenty of time to prepare for life outside of the European Union.
But there too, an air of mutiny hangs over Parliament after Johnson chose a Brexit fight with Brussels that puts Britain on the wrong side of international law.
The bleak atmosphere is a sea change from last year, when Johnson showed his devastating campaign skills to win first the Tory leadership and then a general election.
“Conservative MPs did not choose Boris Johnson as their leader because they thought he would be a great prime minister,” said Professor Tim Bale of Queen Mary University of London. “They chose him … because they were desperate to win an election. There is probably always a hope that someone will turn the job. There is some alarm that hasn’t happened.”
The main opposition Labor Party is making a comeback in opinion polls under its new leader Keir Starmer, a former lawyer who has been subjecting Johnson to forensic questioning in the House of Commons.
But it is among the ranks of his own conservatives that Johnson faces the greatest test. His finance minister, Rishi Sunak, is gaining praise for a series of big-spending coronavirus economic packages.
In the royal blue Daily Telegraph, commentator Katy Balls wrote that Sunak is “being accused of being a pending prime minister,” though she noted that he may still prove a hit when it comes to balancing the books as mass unemployment returns.
Announcing his latest package last Thursday, Sunak said Britons must learn to “live without fear,” delighting conservative skeptics who want Johnson to prioritize the survival of companies over stricter closures.
The prime minister’s 80-seat majority should provide a comfortable cushion, but between 40 and 60 conservatives are said to be planning a revolt when the government’s emergency powers against the coronavirus are renewed this week.
Johnson himself had Covid-19 in April. Raising doubts about his political acumen in recent times, some conservatives have openly expressed concerns about the virus’s long-term effects on his health.
“Whatever the cause, it has become doctrinaire and resistant to debate,” argued Stephen Glover, a columnist for the Daily Mail.
For The Spectator, a news magazine Johnson once edited, the Premier presides over “disorder, debacle, rebellion, u-turn and confusion.”
“He is no longer in a position to be prime minister and should resign as soon as Brexit ends,” wrote Spectator contributor Toby Young, once a fervent Johnson supporter.
Ending Brexit with an “oven-ready” EU divorce deal was the promise Johnson made to the electorate last December, five months after he succeeded Theresa May as prime minister.
May is now aligned among the rebels who oppose the government’s internal market bill, which is intended to protect trade within Britain after Brexit, at the cost of violating treaty promises made to the EU.
The government appears to have bought in some of the disaffected by amending the law ahead of a final Commons vote this week. But the bill would still give Parliament the right to violate the EU Withdrawal Agreement, and the 27-nation bloc remains deeply discontent.
Both sides hope to reach a new trade deal before a summit in mid-October, but the prospect of a chaotic “no-deal” split looms in December, when a post-Brexit transition period ends.
Ahead of the EU summit, Johnson will preside over the Conservatives’ annual conference on Oct. 3-6, usually a time when party loyalists applaud his Churchillian rhetoric. But this year’s all-virtual conference will deprive you of the opportunity to rediscover your usual enthusiasm.
Johnson’s depressing public attitude could be linked to a slow recovery from Covid-19 and life with a newborn baby at 10 Downing Street, some commentators argue. “But it may have more to do with the fact that he is in a job where he seems to be quite out of reach,” Professor Bale said.
FRANCE MEDIA AGENCY
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