As a master of public manipulation, Boris Johnson has few equals. His resignation has all the characteristics of a disaster turned into an opportunity. For weeks now, an all-party committee of the House of Commons has been crawling over the evidence of his behaviour behind closed doors when the rest of us were locked down. This report appears to have confirmed his worst fears. A suspension from the House of Commons, a recall petition from constituents, a difficult byelection and political humiliation.
Most of us would have cowered at the prospect. But with one spectacular coup de théâtre, he was free. The Commons report could hardly recommend a 10-day suspension for an MP who had already gone. The debate would no longer focus on whether he did or did not lie to the Commons. It would become centred on Boris and his future.
The very announcement has familiar characteristics: “convicted by a kangaroo court” became gumption speak for a Conservative majority committee report. “Undemocratic” is difficult to square with the ultimate responsibility that the committee places on the House of Commons. The Labour chair is thrown into the mix to give his friends in the popular press a hook on which to hang their anti-Labour propaganda.
I described it as a brilliant coup de théâtre. It is, of course, totally unprincipled and dishonest. That is Boris’s basic problem. Words are designed to make his audience believe whatever they want to believe. There is no anchor to any discernible truth or sense of integrity.
His character flaws have been well documented. Max Hastings, his former editor at the Daily Telegraph, commented just before Johnson became prime minister: “There is room for debate about whether he is a scoundrel or mere rogue, but not much about his moral bankruptcy, rooted in a contempt for truth.”
Even before the Brexit referendum and Johnson’s ascent to the cabinet and Downing St, Matthew Parris, a former Conservative MP, warned: “There’s a pattern to Boris’s life … It’s the casual dishonesty, the cruelty, the betrayal; and, beneath the betrayal, the emptiness of real ambition: the ambition to do anything useful with office once it is attained.” The party did not listen.
Of course, it is possible to see all this in the light of one person’s career. But there is an infinitely more important aspect. These same characteristics, clear within this latest episode, are the same as those that led to Britain’s historic decision to leave the European Union. I have worked for the Conservative party for the last 70 years. I have followed the inspiration of Churchill, Macmillan, Heath and Thatcher, who gave Britain a leading position in one of the power blocks of the 21st century. I have seen that overturned on a cynical exploitative combination of promises led by Boris Johnson. He won a large majority on the slogan Get Brexit Done. Yet here we are, years later, when the criticism, even from its most fanatical supporters like Nigel Farage, is that Brexit has failed.
To me, it is inconceivable that, in these circumstances, Johnson could stand as a Conservative member of parliament again. It is up to Conservative central office to affirm an official candidate. No doubt he will go out into the world and make huge sums of money, writing history as he thinks it was conducted. But it will have little to do with the reality of the mess he left behind.
He can continue to cause damage to the party as he has done so conspicuously in recent years, because he retains a following in the country. That will be exploited by his friends in the popular press. But his real legacy is Brexit, the biggest historic mistake this country has made in peacetime.
Lord Heseltine was deputy prime minister in the John Major government from 1995-97
