King of the U-turn Boris Johnson always gives in too late

The prime minister has a record of leaving it to the last moment before performing a policy U-turn, writes John Rentoul

Boris Johnson has ordered a U-turn on visas for lorry drivers (AP)

Yet another U-turn. After insisting for months that the government wouldn’t import EU lorry drivers to deal with the shortage, Boris Johnson has now ordered the issue of 5,000 short-term visas.

It won’t do much good, because as Priti Patel, the home secretary, pointed out, there is a lorry driver shortage across Europe, so there probably aren’t that many drivers who want to work here but can’t.

But the prime minister has got to the point where he thinks it is more important to be seen to be doing something about the crisis, even if it’s ineffective, than to stand by the principle of Brexit, which is to shut our labour market to EU competition. The headlines have got so bad that Johnson thinks it is worth offending hardcore Brexiteers in order to be seen to be getting a grip on the problem.

This is a pattern of prime ministerial behaviour with which we have become familiar during the coronavirus crisis. Shaking hands? Carry on. Get the police to enforce public health restrictions? We’re not that sort of country. Another lockdown? Never.

Each time, Johnson insisted that difficult and unpleasant measures would not be needed, until, too late, and long after public opinion had decided he was irresponsible for delaying, he would finally give in and hold a news conference – at which he would still try to insist that the bad news was just about to start receding, and that everything would be back to normal in no time.

It was the same with Marcus Rashford’s campaign to feed children entitled to free school meals during the summer holiday. No, no, no, definitely not, and then Oh, all right then. And then the same thing happened all over again before the Christmas holiday.

It applies to personnel, too. The British people were overwhelmingly of the view that Dominic Cummings, his chief adviser, would have to go after appearing to interpret lockdown rules to suit himself, and yet Johnson just wouldn’t get rid of him. Indeed, their relationship broke down over Cummings’s cavalier behaviour, and yet the prime minister still didn’t eject him from Downing Street for another six months.

In each case, Johnson seems to get the worst of both worlds. By setting his face against public opinion, and stubbornly sticking to his position despite mounting outcry, he then fails to gain much credit by finally doing the right thing. And yet he always seems to be just flexible enough to avoid lasting damage.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator