Boris Johnson’s dreams of returning to power are toast – but many decades of mischief making are still ahead
“IS it all over for Boris Johnson? Is Boris toast?” barked Trevor Phillips on Sky TV yesterday.
He was grilling Health supremo Steve Barclay, who limply offered support for all Tory MPs at the next election, Boris perhaps included.
But Boris is toast, isn’t he? Whatever happens in the looming Partygate “stitch-up”, the vast Covid pandemic inquiry or the General Election itself.
At least, his career in Downing Street is toast.
Any dreams of returning to power as PM have perished.
No other Prime Minister would risk him in Cabinet, whether “p***ing in”, or “p***ing out”.
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That does not reduce the firepower of Boris the class act, Boris the rascal, Boris the mischief-making phenomenon recognisable to everyone on the planet, even from behind.
For the moment, he will be fighting for his seat as an MP if found guilty of “lying” to Parliament over drinks during lockdown.
And he is furious with Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and Cabinet Office Minister Jeremy Quin for handing police his official diary covering lockdown.
“This is a political stitch-up concocted in an attempt to smear Boris,” says an unnamed pal who sounds remarkably like Boris.
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“If ministers are shown to have deliberately used government legal resources for political purposes they must resign.”
But if the wannabe “World King” still hopes for a Lazarus-like comeback, he is surely deluded. Isn’t he?
There are some die-in-a-ditch loyalists who insist he was knifed by minnows who could not hold a candle to his election-winning wizardry.
There may be something in that.
But to suggest Boris might one day lead the Tories back from the brink is fantasy.
‘The wrecker’
Close allies want him to zip it and give Rishi Sunak the space he needs for any chance at the next election.
But even while smouldering, Boris has the capacity to blaze into life.
What some fans fear above all is the spectacle of BoJo striding into the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this autumn as its saviour.
“It would become the Boris Johnson Show, the only story in the newspapers and on telly,” says a senior Tory.
“It would eclipse Rishi, and Boris would be portrayed as the wrecker.”
This should not be mistaken as support for Rishi Sunak, the man Boris fans blame for ousting their hero.
It is fear of the consequences for a squabbling government at the next election.
So his critics — some of them — will support Rishi as PM while urging him to deliver the policies people voted for under Boris, such as on immigration and delivering Brexit.
The trouble is, Boris wasn’t all that keen on delivering those policies himself.
Many believe his decision to lead the Out campaign was nothing more than calculated opportunism, a springboard to No10.
He was wet on immigration, calling for an amnesty for countless illegal migrants already in the country — an open invitation to countless more.
Even on Brexit, his special subject, he did not decide until the last moment whether to back Remain or Leave, and then only after drawing up the pros and cons on separate sheets of paper.
Boris was brought up in Brussels, weaned on ever-closer union, taught at father Stanley’s knee that free movement and a green environment are basic human rights.
The BoJo volcano is far from extinct.
He is only 58, and looks younger. Decades of mischief lie ahead.
Risk splitting
He might truly believe that, like his own hero Winston Churchill, who was 65 when he became Prime Minister, destiny will beckon him once more to lead his country to glory.
That opportunity would arise in the aftermath of a Tory election defeat — especially if Donald Trump paves the way as reincarnated American President.
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A defeated Tory party would risk splitting — between tax-cutting Thatcherite Brexit diehards on one side and the big-spending pro-immigration, pro-green, pro-EU, high-tax wing on the other.
If you had to guess, which side do you think BoJo would choose as his path to World King, after first drawing up the arguments for and against on separate sheets of paper?