Boris Johnson moves his pieces in search of a triumphant return to the throne

History, politics and sports are full of tremendous resurrections and spectacular comebacks.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
22 October 2022 Saturday 04:31
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Boris Johnson moves his pieces in search of a triumphant return to the throne

History, politics and sports are full of tremendous resurrections and spectacular comebacks. The returns of Michael Jordan and to a lesser extent Tiger Woods, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Juan Domingo Perón, US President Grover Cleveland (until now the only one elected for a second term after leaving office), the Marquis de Lafayette. Or the patrician, consul and Roman general Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, who dedicated himself to cultivating his garden in protest at the sending of his son into exile, only to return later by popular acclamation as a dictator.

Will Boris Johnson return at the demand of conservative militants just three months after being ousted for a series of corruption scandals, the chaos of his government and illegal partying in Downing Street during the pandemic? Will the party be able to knock on his door, apologize for getting rid of him in July, and beg him to come back, like the Romans to Cincinnatus? Would the country take it or would it just completely break apart? How would the world see it? Would it be the last straw in Britain's image as a serious nation?

Neither The Crown, nor Game of Thrones, nor The Lord of the Rings, nor Big Brother, nor Survivors, nor Gent del Barri... No movie, television series or reality show on Netflix, Movistar, TV3 or the BBC can compete with the political soap opera translated into all the languages ​​that has the United Kingdom and a good part of the world on edge, the unusual spectacle of the self-destruction of a Conservative Party –and by rebound a country– that presumed prudence and sense common, but since Brexit they have been doing harakiri. The ignominious fall of Liz Truss seemed to be the final chapter before the recovery of a modicum of sanity, but suddenly there is speculation of a new season more sensational than any of the previous ones, the resurrection of the dead hero (or anti-hero) ; The Return of Boris Johnson.

The candidates for the Tory throne have until Monday at two in the afternoon to collect the hundred signatures of MPs (there are a total of 357) necessary to present themselves. If only one succeeds, he will be crowned by acclamation. If three do, there will be a vote that same afternoon to eliminate the least favored. And the names of the two finalists will be sent to party members - mostly white pensioners from the south of England - to decide electronically on Friday. With the close precedent that with Liz Truss they were so wrong that they set the country on fire.

For the moment Jeremy Hunt, current chancellor of the Exchequer, and Ben Wallace, defense minister, have already said they will not appear. Who does is Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, who came third in the summer leadership battle. The rest of her keeps her cards to herself, while she speculates and conspires. Rishi Sunak has the largest following among MPs, and his criticism of Truss's economic program and tax increases has been fully vindicated. But having lost in August, he doesn't want a second loss, and he knows the guards would prefer Johnson. Before making a statement, he needs to know if the ex-premier is going to get the hundred signatures or not.

Will you get them? It is the million dollar question, the crux of the matter in the political hotbed of Westminster. Yesterday there was speculation that he already had fifty deputies in his pocket (apart from those who do not want to say so, but would give him their support), a combination of eurosceptics, representatives of the extreme conservative right and red wall legislators, the depressed regions of northern industrial England. All those Tories pay a lot of lip service to the national interest, but what moves them are two things, in this order: save their own seats in the next elections and save Brexit (to which the Truss administration has nailed a thrust, putting in evidence of its economic impact).

Johnson, on vacation in the Dominican Republic, has hinted at his willingness to throw his hat into the ring, but has yet to do so officially. He doesn't want the humiliation of being unable to collect the required hundred signatures, and he has two serious problems. One is the parliamentary inquiry hanging over his head into whether he lied to the House of Commons on the issue of illegal parties, a possible ground for suspension. The second is that he has his unconditional supporters, but there are also many deputies who do not forgive him for the mistakes and lies that forced him to resign a short time ago, and would see his return as a macabre joke, the repetition of history turned into a tragedy at the same time and in farce. Three or four of them say that if that happens, they would give up their seats or go over to the opposition.

More than half of Britons think Johnson's return would be a bad idea, but more than 50% of Tories think it would be good or very good. Conservatives have long been divided, unable to unite around an ideology, let alone a leader. Will they decide on the return of their particular Cincinato, more pro-Brexit and anti-European than ever, ready to burn the agreements with the EU? Insanity, said Einstein, is repeating the same action expecting a different result.