The most revealing aspect of Boris Johnson’s resignation statement was when he said he was “leaving parliament – at least for now” (Boris Johnson resigns as MP with immediate effect over Partygate report, 9 June). However, it wasn’t the predictable evidence of Johnson’s remarkable self-confidence that was interesting; rather, the truly revealing thing about the former prime minister’s bulletproof sense of entitlement was what it shows us about the rotten state of British politics.
In any healthy politics, a man with Johnson’s track record of lying and incompetence would be finished. But Johnson’s belief that he will be back is merely following the lead of fellow Old Etonian David Cameron and Cameron’s equally privileged erstwhile sidekick George Osborne. Polly Toynbee wrote this month that Cameron is “shamed into silence by his Greensill greed. As for Osborne, he deserves the sort of public condemnation … that should see him stripped of all the undeserved rewards showered on him since leaving parliament”.
