It's possible, but by no means certain, that Boris Johnson's premiership has entered the end game. But even now, with the resignations of Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak hot in the Prime Minister's in-tray, he can't stop lying to the party faithful. Beset by some unexpected nibbles in the Johnson flank from the resigning junior and bag carrying ranks, it's reported that he's promised 80 or so loyalists that a bonfire of tax can now commence with cuts galore to come. People with memories may recall how Johnson had long briefed to the press that "levelling up" wasn't working because Dishy Rishi kept kiboshing Johnson's schemes. Not only does Johnson lie as easily as he breathes, he treats his loyalists as credulous fools too.
The problem with writing while events are unfolding is the danger of immediate irrelevance. With two senior cabinet members gone, politics turns upon the decisions of those who haven't declared their loyalties. As this post has gestated, the normally loyal Nadhim Zahawi entered Downing Street. Would he pick up Sunak's mantle at the Treasury, or find a spine and tell Johnson it's time to pack up? If the tittle tattle was to be believed, there was a barney as he demanded the chancellor's job while Johnson was minded to give that to Liz Truss. In the end, Zahawi prevailed - suggesting Johnson isn't as invulnerable as, even now, it is supposed. He moves to Number 11, sans the heated stables for his nags, while Michelle Donelan gets to inflict on schools the misery she's forced on universities. The fate of high politics determined by low ambition, it was forever thus.
Instead of committing to predictions likely to unravel within minutes, what do the two big beast resignation letters have to say? Like all the notes published this evening, it rattles off the Tories' success in raising tractor production before coming to the rub. In Javid's case, he says the Tories are no longer seen as sensible decision-makers guided by values. The no confidence vote was supposed to be a moment of "humility" and "new direction", but what the party got instead was the same old, stale old Johnson shtick. Though he thanks the Prime Minister for seeing off the dastardly Jeremy Corbyn.
Sunak's resignation was a bit more on the nose. Opining with the challenges the country face, he makes a play about standards in public life - forgetting his own recent brush with the law. Sunak lays out his record of obsequious loyalty after he said government was not "conducted properly, competently, and seriously." He goes on to say this might be his last ministerial job, before reminding the reader - and the voter in an upcoming Tory party leadership contest - that he's keen into "low taxes" and "tough decisions". Ideological catnip for a party faithful begrudgingly accepting of the "socialism" under Johnson's watch.
In reality, in a cabinet not overly blessed with talent Javid and Sunak, who have a bit more about them than the rest of their erstwhile colleagues, can see the Johnson moment is coming to a close. The question is not a matter of if and when, but how much damage Johnson can inflict and who will pay the price of eternal irrelevance on the backbenches with Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries. If there was a decent bone in either men's bodies, they wouldn't have presided over tens of thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths, the miseries of an NHS being run into the ground, and trying to clamp down on people's hopes and aspirations that have been opened up over the last five or six years. They want to emerge from the carnage of the Johnson government as future players, if not leaders. As Sunak said, he was loyal and he pushed Johnson, bigged him up, supported him. Until he became inconvenient to his ambition. Neither Sunak or Javid deserve plaudits or pats on the back for "being brave". They are as culpable as Johnson for the present mess. If this was a truly just world, the only thing they would be entitled to expect is contempt.
Image Credit
