The Boris Blunder
By JOONYOUNG HEO ’25
Amidst a storm of popular resentment and plummeting support within his own party, Boris Johnson emerged from 10 Downing Street in the first week of July and resigned as the Conservative Party leader. When a suitable replacement was selected, Johnson announced that he would also resign from a three-year tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK). As a crowd of reporters flocked to his podium, he told the public that he was sad to be “giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.”
This wasn’t always the case. In fact, when Johnson took office in 2019, he handed the Conservatives their best election since 1987. He won in a landslide at the ballot box because the public latched onto a stroke of political genius––a single-minded “do or die” policy to finish Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU) initiated by his predecessor, Theresa May.
Within his party too, Johnson was uniquely situated as the prime candidate. The Conservatives were largely divided along a line that persists today. While some of their Members of Parliament (MPs) were inclined to back more libertarian and free-market policies, others were equally devoted to government intervention and protectionist economics. Johnson was able to mediate between and ultimately bring together these polar factions because he supported both of them, promising in the same breath a policy of state spending and tax cuts, and of protectionism and free trade.
Johnson’s tenure certainly did have its moments. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, his administration was relatively competent in procuring vaccines for the public. When Russia began the march to Kyiv, Ukraine in February, his government was the second-largest military donor to Ukraine, pledging more than two billion pounds in support.
Despite the occasional bright spot in three years of office, however, inflation has risen to over 9 percent in 2022. While this recent economic downturn might be attributed to factors beyond Johnson’s control––primarily the Russo-Ukrainian War––his government did not help matters when, in Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer’s words, it chose to “increase taxes on the working people.”
Yet perhaps there were cracks in his campaign from the very beginning. Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt stated before Johnson’s victory in 2019 that the Prime Minister lacked “integrity, competence, and vision,” and he wasn’t speaking alone. The broader issue in Johnson’s politics can be traced back to the policy that got him elected in the first place. Once he kept his promise to the people and wiped his hands clean of Brexit, Johnson faced a daunting proposition––with his single-minded political vision fulfilled, he was in desperate need of a new long-term plan. Indeed, as BBC put it, many of his critics accused his administration of “a lack of focus and ideas.” The apparent absence of a concrete objective alone forced Johnson into a distinctly unfavorable position.
But the most significant reason behind Johnson’s downfall was far simpler; although the economic byproduct of his tenure and a dearth of political vision largely contributed to mounting public disapproval, the final nail in the coffin was a familiar compound of lies and scandals.
Such an explanation is likely surprising, especially when the politicians and leading public figures of our day often seem impervious to the consequences of deception and rulebreaking. Johnson, too, has been described by former Prime Minister David Cameron as a “greased piglet” for his extraordinary ability to rebound to greater heights after each political setback. His history of fabrication stretches all the way to 1987, when he began a career in journalism as a reporter for The Times and was quickly fired for making up a quote, and in 2011 he lost a senior position among the Conservatives for lying about an affair. But now, his dishonest streak finally seems to have caught up with him.
The Partygate scandal stands out from the crowd. Recently, it was made clear that Johnson violated lockdown rules when he held a large gathering on his birthday in June 2020. Later he also apologized for hosting a “bring your own booze” party on Downing Street. He certainly wasn’t alone. Nearly a hundred officials in Johnson’s administration were fined for similar violations. Retirement parties, holiday celebrations, social gatherings––whatever the Conservatives have stated, there is overwhelming evidence that all of these took place, and with an extravagance well suited to a post-pandemic world at that.
Needless to say, the public did not take kindly to Johnson’s flagrant disregard for his own lockdowns. The thought of him pouring champagne and posing for pictures as its people suffered in the streets engendered a wave of revulsion from the population. In an opinion poll conducted by YouGov, a British firm specializing in market research and data analysis, 72 percent of the public held an “unfavorable view” of Johnson in Jan. 2022. Ipsos MORI, another market research company, cited “lack of faith in politicians and politics” as a critical national issue reported by a quarter of respondents.
The straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back was the Chris Pincher affair. This past July, allegations arose sexual assault against Pincher, the Conservative Chief Whip at the time. In his letter of resignation to the Prime Minister, he admitted that he “drank far too much” and “embarrassed myself and other people.” The case continued to grow, and similar incidents from years past came to light.
In a public statement, Downing Street told the press that Johnson was unaware of “specific allegations” when he had appointed Pincher in 2019. Shortly afterward, it was revealed that the Prime Minister had actually received a formal complaint in person. Once the gears began turning, Johnson confessed and apologized for appointing Pincher.
But there was no going back. The public and his own party turned entirely against Johnson. It was a period of crisis for his administration, with a great chunk of government staff resigning in July. Evidently, most people were tired of Johnson’s penchant for fabrication and his disregard for the law. Left in charge of what was essentially a defunct administration in Downing Street, Johnson was forced to resign as party leader and effectively as Prime Minister on July 7.
That was the final chapter of Johnson’s tenure in the highest office of British politics. It is unlikely that he will vanish from the political sphere, of course; after all, he has demonstrated outstanding resilience in the past. We can expect with relative confidence that he will cling on and regain his footing in the future. But Johnson has indeed been removed, with any real chance of another victory at the polls nonexistent––and it was Partygate and Chris Pincher, not his economy or his political vision, that ultimately brought him down.
Perhaps the lies they tell and the scandals they create have more significance than we might think. Boris Johnson has reminded the world that our leaders can be held accountable for what they say and how they act. He seemed to have forgotten it himself, and that––more than anything else––was his undoing.
