The British people adore Boris Johnson. That is unarguable. It’s why he doesn’t lose elections. It is therefore very funny – the way idiocy so often is – that the Conservative party even in this, its moment of greatest existential crisis, is not right now prostrating itself before the great man to beg for his return.
Boris used his farewell speech in Downing Street to liken himself to the ancient Roman statesman Cincinnatus
‘We are profoundly sorry that we thought we knew better than you, and accept that all evidence since we deposed you has proved us entirely and unforgivably wrong,’ it should be snivelling. ‘Please come back and save us, like you did when, not six years ago against all odds, you delivered the biggest parliamentary majority we’ve had since 1987.’
But no. Instead, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch – even after last week presiding over the loss of 674 Conservative council seats and control of 16 local authorities – continues to speak vaguely about the policies she will one day, presumably when she thinks we can handle them, set before the idiot voters.
‘This is not about winning elections, this is about fixing our country,’ she told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday. Errr. ‘Yes, of course, you need to win elections to do that, but you also need a credible plan.’
Meanwhile, the latest YouGov poll puts the Tories on their joint-lowest ever rating of 17 – one point ahead of the Liberal Democrats, and twelve points behind leaders Reform. Let us know when you’re ready, Kemi.
For what it’s worth, YouGov data also shows Boris remains the joint third most popular politician in the land – tied with Laura Trott on 34 per cent popularity behind David Frost (40) and Nigel Farage (36). By contrast, Kemi’s popularity is 22 per cent, the same as Sir Keir Starmer’s. Robert Jenrick’s – 17 per cent – puts him just behind Jeremy Corbyn (18).
I’ve argued in these pages before that the reason the British like Boris so much is, chiefly, because he is very funny, a quality he apparently shares with no other British politician, and also because he’s fantastically intelligent – which is why he was able so regularly at PMQs to wipe the floor with Starmer (A-level results: B, B and C).
We sense, too, that he is genuinely interested in people, in a way that typical members of our droidish career political class are not. It’s why he reaches parts – the Red Wall, for starters – they do not.
It’s no surprise a More In Common poll this week showed that were Boris to be reinstalled as Tory leader, the party would immediately overtake Reform.
Yes, there is a section of the country that will never forgive him for Brexit, but that is sour grapes and ultimately cannot be helped. It is also a tragedy that this most libertarian – and freedom-loving – of leaders was in power when the pandemic struck. You need only to read his autobiography to understand how much he hated imposing lockdowns.
It is also true that under his leadership, the United Kingdom underwent an extraordinary – and inexcusable – spike in legal and illegal immigration. Were he ever to return, he would have to address this rapidly, and – given today’s political currents – make rectifying it a clear priority. Likewise, he would benefit from toning down the net zero rhetoric he surprisingly became so zealous about.
The British metropolitan elite will always – is it jealousy? – loathe Boris. That is its prerogative. However, for the Conservative party now to steadfastly ignore his very obvious appeal to the wider nation, even as the craggy mountain of doom looms ever closer and all dashboard indicators urgently flash red, seems perverse in the extreme. There is only so long a political party can go on taking for granted that it knows better than its own voters, especially with the rise of Reform.
When he was pushed out in 2022, Boris used his farewell speech in Downing Street to liken himself to the ancient Roman statesman Cincinnatus – ‘like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough’ – who after saving the republic gave up power and returned to his farm, only to be called back when Rome needed him again. Very clearly, the Conservative party now needs saving.
Whether they like it or not, the time has come for the Tories to put up the Boris signal. It’s their only hope.
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