On the road with Boris

Boris defines the ‘new Conservatism’ by being a real human being

18 July 2007

Toby Young, our campaign correspondent, says that the candidate’s prospects
in the London mayoral election hinge on his appeal as a great communicator,
and on the hysteria of the Left, which completely misunderstands him

and make it difficult for him to resume his political career in the event of losing. Unfortunately, his adoption as the official candidate is not a foregone conclusion. Some 40 people have applied for this honour, a group that will be whittled down to a short list of between two and five this weekend. The successful applicants will then participate in an open primary in which all Londoners on the electoral register can vote, with the process concluding on 26 September. The plan was to name the winner at this year’s party conference — until someone pointed out that it would be a bit odd to launch the Conservatives’ bid for Mayor of London in Blackpool. Consequently, the winner will be announced on 28 September, two days before Conference begins.

Will Boris face any serious opposition? He isn’t without his critics within the party. One school of thought maintains that his Bertie Wooster-ish persona sends out the wrong message to the electorate. Cameron may be an Old Etonian himself, but he has nevertheless made some headway in re-branding the Conservatives as a modern party, the wave of the future rather than a throwback to Britain’s Imperial past. Boris, by contrast, is almost a caricature of an old-fashioned huntin’-and-shootin’ Tory MP. His tousled hair and rumpled suits, not to mention his upper-class accent, are part and parcel of his appeal. He’s a kind of pantomime toff, the political equivalent of Stephen Fry. This may go over well on Have I Got News for You, but if Boris is adopted as the Conservative’s official candidate for mayor, it might reinforce the public’s view of the Tories as the party of privilege.

Against this, his supporters insist it is a fundamental misunderstanding of The Boris Phenomenon to focus on his poshness. The reason the British public hold him in such affection, they argue, is that he is emotionally available to them in a way that traditional politicians just aren’t. Andrew Gimson put his finger on this in his biography: ‘People love him because he makes them laugh, but also because they glimpse the hurt young kid behind the laughter. Boris’s vulnerability is akin to someone like Marilyn Monroe’s: it is part of his attraction, and like her he can use it to seduce audiences pretty much at will.’