Does Boris Johnson really believe there was a conspiracy against him?

The outgoing prime minister is encouraging some people with a strange view of the world, writes John Rentoul

These are dangerous, Trumpian waters, in which no responsible leader should be wading (AFP/Getty)

One of Boris Johnson’s defence mechanisms is that he can always pretend to be joking. He was one of three politicians who recorded farewell messages for Vanessa Feltz on her last day at BBC Radio London – the others were Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats and Dawn Butler for Labour.

I couldn’t believe my ears when the actual prime minister said: “I hope no sinister forces have conspired to force you to step down from your crucial position in national life.”

This was obviously a joke-like reference to his own situation. (Feltz’s is rather different, as she is going on to a bigger job as a presenter on Talk TV.) If he were challenged about it, he would presumably deny that the parliamentary Conservative Party is in the grip of “sinister forces” that pushed him out of the office it was his destiny to hold.

Yet he would not be able to conceal his bitterness at being brought down before his time. He failed to do so in his speech announcing his intention to stand down, when he said that, “as we’ve seen at Westminster, the herd is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves”. That was a bit more fatalistic, perhaps, suggesting that he was the victim of the kind of mob hysteria that can grip crowds in highly charged situations – that the Conservative MPs who voted against him, and the ministers who resigned, didn’t really know what they were doing.

Since then, his tone has been darker. In the Commons on 18 July, when he defended his government on a confidence motion it had tabled against itself, he said: “Some people will say, as I leave office, that this is the end of Brexit.” He paused: “Listen to the deathly hush on the opposition benches! The leader of the opposition and the deep state will prevail in their plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return. We on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?”

The conspiracy theory about the “deep state” was expounded as something “some people will say”, and yet it was presented as something “this side of the House” would have to prove wrong. The message was not that it is unhinged paranoia, but that it is a plot – as shown by the opposition’s guilty “deathly hush” – that will be defeated.

These are dangerous, Trumpian waters, in which no responsible leader should be wading. He is encouraging, and knows he is encouraging, people who have some strange views about how the world works. Peter Cruddas, whom Johnson elevated to the peerage against the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, said yesterday: “Today the Conservative Party is a centre-left party, which has attracted a lot of left-leaning MPs posing as Conservatives.”

He has organised a petition against Johnson’s departure, and he and a group of Johnson-loyalist peers have the money and the platform to create trouble for the new prime minister. But if Johnson encourages conspiracy theories about his downfall – for which he alone was responsible – he risks damaging democracy.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator