Plan B | 20 June 2019

When Boris Johnson was appointed editor of this magazine two decades ago, an unkind soul said it was like ‘entrusting a Ming vase in the hands of an ape’. The remark encapsulated many people’s worst fears about the man who will almost certainly be Britain’s prime minister in four weeks’ time, if not before: that Boris is an irresponsible joker. Similar warnings were made when he was elected London mayor. His refusal to conform to type encourages a constant expectation of imminent disaster.

What if Boris flops in No. 10? Even his supporters can’t be sure he won’t fail: his election as leader is a gamble from a party that believes its very survival is at stake. Much depends on which Boris Johnson it is who takes up residence in Downing Street: the inspired campaigner who was twice elected mayor of London, against the odds, and who left that office more popular than when he arrived — or the bungler who spent two years at the Foreign Office achieving little other than to upset diplomatic relations.

The case against Boris is made with eloquence, force and regularity by his army of detractors. But we don’t hear so much about the case for him. How his election as party leader might mark the moment when the wounds of Brexit start to heal and the Conservative party rediscovers purpose and direction. The case is not hard to make. It only requires a simple trick: to place more attention on what Boris Johnson does than what he says.

As mayor of London, he possessed the remarkable talent of appearing as much at home addressing a power breakfast of bankers and business leaders as attending a Pride march or visiting a mosque. At the London Olympics, Boris was cheered by the crowds, while the then chancellor George Osborne was booed.