Johnson’s disastrous premiership will cast a long shadow

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been forced to stand down as leader of the Conservative party. He’ll be gone from Downing Street by the autumn, perhaps much sooner. But the UK will live with the consequences of his reckless career for a very long time, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

The end of Boris Johnson's time in office has all the hallmarks of his entire career, chaos and confusion and above all serial dishonesty and a refusal to take responsibility. His legacy will be Brexit. The ground was laid by years of hostile reporting of the EU in the British press, with Johnson the leading proponent as a journalist.

He then led the leave campaign in the referendum, helped to frustrate all attempts by the UK government to reach a viable withdrawal agreement and then backed a hard Brexit with damaging economic consequences for the UK. Lately, he’s been busy trying to sabotage the Northern Ireland protocol.

At least a record of consistency. But the only true consistency has been one of opportunism. Johnson the journalist embellished his EU-bashing stories to the point of fiction, as it was so much easier to give his Eurosceptic readers what they wanted to believe than invite them -or himself- to face facts.

He hesitated over which side to back in the Brexit referendum. He instinctively supported the free market and free movement but the alternative was to back the cause that most Conservative party members believed in. He was only ever going to jump one way.

Johnson was a brilliant campaigner, however, never embarrassed or burdened by any great sense of personal dignity -or personal responsibility. What he lacked were the qualities needed for high office. It is telling that his close ally in the referendum campaign, Michael Gove, sabotaged his attempt to become Prime Minister in the aftermath of the referendum.

But his instinct for telling people what they wanted to hear found him a ready audience in a Conservative party unwilling to face the hard consequences of quitting the EU. In his second attempt to take over the party and country, he was unstoppable. The Conservatives had been remade in his image.

Now, he observed in his resignation speech, “when the herd moves, it moves”. Conservative MPs were not best pleased to be compared to cattle and thought Johnson should blame his own failings and misjudgments rather than their alleged herd instinct for self-preservation.

Party and country face a fraught few months with such a character still in Downing Street. Even a lame-duck Prime Minister is largely restricted only by convention, which is hardly likely to contain Boris Johnson. There is already talk of installing a caretaker to stop him from wreaking further havoc; walking away might appeal to his sense of theatre.

The Conservatives could resolve the dilemma by speeding up the process of choosing a new leader. That could prove difficult when there’s no clear favourite but there is every chance that only a candidate with a hardline commitment to Brexit will be acceptable to the party. Those who know that is not in the best interests of the UK will have to conceal that truth.

Telling more lies. That is Johnson's legacy. What could possibly go wrong?

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