Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is genuine – but only because his own ambitions depend on its success

Editorial: By the time of the next election, the consequences of Brexit will be real and the rebalancing of the country’s voting patterns will reflect this – in other words, Johnson knows his promise to ‘level up’ Britain has to be kept

(David Simonds)

As far as Boris Johnson is concerned, Brexit is now done. There is also optimism that an extensive vaccination programme will soon lead us out of the Covid crisis. So the prime minister is free to begin his next big challenge, of “levelling up” Britain. It promises to be a bumpy ride.

Many politicians use lies as a cover for inaction. That is not the case with Johnson. He has received fair and sustained mockery for his promise to build a “world beating test and trace system”. But he has been mocked because he failed to do it, not because he didn’t try: £22bn of public money was spent on the failed project.  

Johnson likes to get things done. One of the many keys to understanding the Johnson method is in the deal he personally struck with West Ham United over the use of London’s Olympic Stadium. The difficulties were seemingly intractable. The Johnson solution was to put himself in sole charge, throw hundreds of millions of pounds of public money at the problem, make it appear solved, pose for the photo, take the plaudits and move on.