Why is Boris Johnson hiding? I don’t trust he will really hand over power to his new cabinet

Some Johnson allies suggest people will be less likely to tire of Chairman Boris if he rations his public appearances. I’m not so sure, writes Andrew Grice

As Johnson’s predecessors learned, you cannot run everything from the relatively small operation inside Number 10 (Getty)

During last year’s Tory leadership contest, allies of Boris Johnson suggested that, as prime minister, he would be “good as chairman of the board” who would let his cabinet ministers make decisions and get on with their jobs.

We can now see this strategy playing out amid Johnson’s deliberately low profile. He was off the public radar for 12 days around parliament’s half-term break. This approach led to his stubborn refusal to visit areas hit by the floods, which was a mistake. A YouGov poll shows that 68 per cent of people think political leaders should visit areas hit by natural disasters, while only 15 per cent do not.

I can see why his spin doctors want to avoid Johnson being harangued on TV by residents afflicted by flooding. He had a taste of it in November when he did visit flood-hit areas; the difference then was that an election was coming. I think No 10 was right then and is wrong now; the public expect to see a PM taking charge, and empathising with people. Johnson would get credit from other voters for putting on his wellies.

The downside of being attacked in front of a much wider TV audience might be worse in the short term, but in the long run, if this becomes a pattern of behaviour, the “Where’s Boris?” tag and Jeremy Corbyn’s “part-time prime minister” jibe could stick and be damaging.

His aides dismiss such analysis by people like me in the Westminster bubble, who they see as out of touch with the real world (YouGov’s findings suggest otherwise). They calculate the floods will be soon largely forgotten, that voters are not bothered if they don’t see their PM all the time. Yet some Tory MPs suspect this is really about Johnson’s aides not wanting to dance to the media’s tune. As one put it: “What if the media is right? Sometimes you have to change tack.”

Johnson is not the first PM to hint at handing power to his ministers. In practice, it rarely happens. Gordon Brown genuinely tried to replace Tony Blair’s “sofa government” (ie an informal group of close cronies making the big decisions) with traditional cabinet government and allow his ministers the limelight, but later admitted he “fell short”. David Cameron tried too, but had to share power with the Liberal Democrats. Even when he won an overall majority, the Blair sofa in the PM’s study remained. Theresa May replaced the sofa with a table and restored the semblance of cabinet government. Its meetings droned on for two to three hours, but real decisions were taken by her swamped coterie of advisers, leaving ministers frustrated by the logjam.

Appearances are also deceptive under Johnson. His cabinet reshuffle was officially about competence but really about promoting ultra-loyalists. Julian Smith, an undoubted success as Northern Ireland secretary, was replaced by Brandon Lewis. Geoffrey Cox, an attorney general liable to go off message, was succeeded by Suella Braverman, a former chair of the European Research Group. She was one of the five cabinet ministers who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum and which approved the UK’s negotiating position for an EU trade deal – along with Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Rishi Sunak.

Johnson is in charge of the talks and should have made Thursday’s Commons statement on the talks, rather than leave it to Gove. Thirty minutes a week of Prime Minister’s Questions is all we get.

The reshuffle saw a centralisation of power in No 10 by clipping the Treasury’s wings, which provoked Sajid Javid’s resignation.

While he was London mayor, Johnson depended on his team of deputies and was a successful chairman of the board. It was said then he was not a “details man”. Heading a government is different. On the EU, he will certainly need to be across the detail. It won’t always fit on to two sides of A4, which officials have been told is the limit for memos to the PM.

Media appearances by ministers are strictly controlled by Downing Street. Only trusted allies and “safe” performers who stick to the script are allowed out. And yet, as Johnson’s predecessors learnt, you cannot run everything from the relatively small operation inside No 10.

Some Johnson allies suggest people will be less likely to tire of Chairman Boris if he rations his public appearances. I’m not so sure; that will happen anyway, and it won’t be under his control.

Hiding and letting his ministers face the music won’t work. It could erode the public’s trust, which Johnson rightly wants to keep. He is primus inter pares (first among equals); he cannot wield the power without taking responsibility. When things go wrong or there are unforeseen “black swan” events such as coronavirus, there is no escape. The buck stops with the PM.