Boris Johnson announces his resignation outside No 10 Downing St on Thursday.Credit:Getty
Don’t worry dear reader,I have not lost my marbles. Those are not my words but those of Boris Johnson,written forThe Daily Telegraph on May 10,2010,when he was the shambolic yet still likeable mayor of London and a Labour PM,Gordon Brown,was clinging to power.
The column,unearthed and shared widely in the 18 excruciating hours between Johnson’s bullish and delusional appearance before Westminster’s Liaison Committee and his subdued “them’s the breaks” resignation speech outside No 10 exemplifies the fever dream nature of British politics this week.
Could it really be that only 30 months have passed since Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to a landslide majority of 80 seats and 43.6 per cent of the popular vote – the highest for any party since 1979?
Former UK prime minister David Cameron,left,with then London Mayor Boris Johnson in 2005.Credit:Getty
By any reckoning,the first term of a Johnson government should have been a honeymoon defined by constructive policy reform led by a PM blessed with a thumping electoral mandate,a grateful and financially generous Conservative party,and an even more indebted and appreciative parliamentary backbench. (It should also have been a dream period for him personally as he emerged from a second marriage breakup,soon to become a father again with Carrie Symonds,a savvy,young former Tory spin doctor.)
The Tories had been in the doldrums since 2017 after failing to win a majority meant a prolonged period of parliamentary deadlock over leaving the European Union and reliance on the support of the mercurial Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It was another bruising period for the Tories in which David Cameron chose to fall on his sword after failing to win the Remain referendum and prime minister Theresa May was forced to resign to make way for Johnson who promptly called a snap election and campaigned triumphantly on the now infamous mantra of “getting Brexit done”.
Instead,Johnson proved himself only as a supreme and brazen survivor,recovering first from a near fatal brush with COVID,then weathering scandal after scandal by denying,obfuscating,lying,apologising,and lying again.
Boris Johnson,then foreign secretary,with the woman he replaced as prime minister Theresa May in 2017.Credit:Thierry Charlier