EU colleagues must be bewildered by the current antics in the UK Conservative party. They are not the only ones, writes Philip Bushill-Matthews.
Liz Truss finally resigned, not just becoming our shortest ever Prime Minister but also securing the title of the country’s worst PM despite stiff competition from her immediate predecessors. She said the reason for her going was that she was no longer able to ‘deliver her mandate’. Not her fault then: it was everyone else’s.
Any Government needs a Leader who is self-confident: but self-confidence must be tempered with self-awareness. Truss throughout her brief premiership was oblivious to the insanity of her policies. The Daily Telegraph naturally remained a whole-hearted supporter, at one stage even blaming the ‘anti-Brexiteers’ for her removal. Denial of reality is not the sole prerogative of Liz Truss or Conservative party selectors – or indeed Boris Johnson.
To be fair, the blame for the current turmoil should not all be ascribed to Liz. The person who created the black hole in the first place was Boris. It was his eloquence which fraudulently convinced voters that Brexit only had upsides, saving the UK £500m a week for the NHS, reducing immigration, having our cake and eating it and ‘taking back control’.
Instead of saving money it reduced our economy by £100 billion with the tax take reduced by £40 billion, the size of the current black hole. Immigration has gone up as the economy has gone down. The UK has less control over its destiny than before and there is a distinct absence of cake – though in the interest of balance one must admit that the prospect of now being able to bring back pounds and ounces and put the crown design onto pint glasses should be recognised for the transformative benefits they surely must be.
Boris may have technically ‘got Brexit done’, but only by choosing the most extreme Brexit possible which baked in massive disadvantages for British business and for which he had no mandate. He also created a new row with the EU by reneging on the legal commitments he had personally signed off on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
It was no surprise that Boris convinced himself that only he could save the party (and therefore the nation), and also that he would claim he had the support of more than the 100 MPs he would need to get on the ballot even if he hadn’t. If it were true, having rushed back from his latest holiday and secured all the votes he needed, he must be the first ever candidate for Prime Minister who stood down because he was confident he would win.
The truth surely is that he was well short of the numbers needed but chose to craft an alternative reality to justify his actions. His personal philosophy may be gleaned from an excerpt from Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” which he gave as a present to Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv: “For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.”
As recession looms, inflation mounts, mortgages increase and ratings agencies downgrade the UK economy to ‘negative’, the man who caused many of the problems could never be the man to resolve them. They will still provide a massive challenge for Rishi Sunak, having finally been elected by acclamation by his fellow Conservative MPs.
Whatever one’s politics we should all wish him well. He is able, honest and serious, which is a good start and a welcome change. The country needs to give him a chance, and he needs to show the country he can help with the cost-of-living crisis and not just unite his divided party.
A further early test of his mettle will be his handling of negotiations for the Northern Ireland Protocol, and indeed whether he keeps prominent Brexiteers in charge of these or any other EU discussions.
Meanwhile special thanks should go to the Chairman of the backbench ‘1922’ committee who cannily set the bar high enough to exclude those with fine words but little to offer in practice. It meant that the far-sighted group of selectors, the tiny group of paid-up Conservative party members who anointed Truss on the basis of her unfunded tax cuts, have no further opportunity to get in the way of common sense.
Boris should have heeded the words of former Brexit Secretary David Davis. When learning that Boris was on holiday again, this time in the Caribbean, he issued the best advice: ‘Stay on the beach’.
As a footnote for American readers, the good news is that Mar-a-Lago has a choice of beaches.
The Author, Philip Bushill-Matthews is former Leader of the UK Conservatives in the European Parliament
