Boris Johnson departs without grace or imagination – but we’re still hooked

Like mugs, we’re still waiting with bated breath to see how our unlikely hero will escape his next scrape, remaining somehow under his spell even though the adventure is over, writes Salma Shah

In one way or another, he’s responsible for deposing three British prime ministers – the last one being himself (PA)

Political obituaries are incredibly difficult to write. How can one pack in the detail of a high-profile political career with a word limit? This predicament is made worse when you’re also not quite sure the career in question is actually dead yet.

Boris Johnson’s refusal to play by the rules means even his departure lacks the time-honoured dignity of pushing off gracefully to let the next person have their turn at the helm. Nor is it helpful to deny the commentators of the world their neat closure of watching him finally setting off into a sunset lined with lucrative book deals and speaking engagements.

Instead, we have a typically Johnsonian mess, without grace or imagination, yet still keeping us completely hooked. He intimates that he may be back, breathing down the neck of the next person, posing as a prince across the water yet again. Like mugs, we’re still waiting with bated breath to see how our unlikely hero will escape his next scrape with parliamentary standards, remaining somehow under his spell even though the adventure is over.

Even his resignation speech, usually a moment of reflection, lacked any self-awareness and resolutely ignored his inability to command the trust and confidence of the parliamentary party because of his completely chaotic behaviour and ineptitude at leadership. So far, so Boris.

But why change the habit of a lifetime?

Despite his numerous and obvious failings, his enormous impact on British politics is undeniable. In one way or another, he’s responsible for deposing three British prime ministers – the last one being himself. His campaigning led Britain out of the European Union, which will leave him a hero in many people’s eyes. But the decisions he made during the pandemic will render him little more than a villain.

And that is ultimately his lot. For a man who so obviously caricatured himself to advance his political career, there is very little to draw on to ask what his premiership actually meant. He has no ideological belief, no policy passion and no commendable cultural or social position with which to enhance his legacy.

He can certainly claim some credit for his actions in standing in solidarity with Ukraine, but even then, the victory is not his. He is a bit part player in a much bigger show. He can say he changed the political make-up by exiting the EU,  but that is a festering sore in Whitehall, still awaiting completion and aeons away from unleashing Britain’s potential. Everything he’s done is always less than the sum of its parts, half–baked, or a general disappointment.

The dismal attempts at pointing to a legacy on his rather meagre farewell tour underline his lacklustre administration. A photo of him standing next to what looked like a grave couldn’t have been more apt. A rushed announcement on funding a nuclear power station was particularly galling when energy policy has needed a strong guiding hand for years. The final hurrah only made his achievements seem that much more rubbish.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

It is an interesting coincidence that Mikhail Gorbachev passed away the very week that Johnson’s premiership fades. For some of us, the pictures of Ronald Reagan with the Russian president are imprinted in memory because of the significant difference those men were about to make. The consequences Gorbachev suffered by putting the interests of the world first were unworthy of his great deeds and the images reflected the seriousness of the time. That’s why they endure. What will be Johnson’s enduring image? I can’t help but think it will be of the guy stuck on a zipwire, comically holding plastic union jacks.

He spent so long being the coming man, he was at a loss when he finally reached his destination. Perhaps he had built it up so much in his mind that he was expecting something else at the summit. For those in the party who have sellers’ remorse, they can reassure themselves knowing Johnson would not have changed. No set of advisers of circumstances could have stopped him from pushing the self-destruct button.

But if that’s not enough they can comfort themselves knowing he’ll find a way back to the top and maybe even destroy a fourth Conservative premiership in the process.

Salma Shah was special adviser to Sajid Javid, from 2018 to 2019. She was also a special adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport