Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Bestselling Political Biography of the Year

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We can agree on that much, I suggest. But does he really think that the lessons of Johnson’s government have been learned? Monster pieces calling for multiple soloists, a lusty chorus and an orchestra almost toppling off the stage... ★★★★☆ An absolutely outstanding piece of contemporary history which eviscerated Johnson, emphasising the chaotic nature of his premiership and challenging many of the myths perpetrated about his unique abilities.

Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Instant Sunday Times

Rarely in 300 years and never since 1916 has a Prime Minister been so poor at appointments, so incompetent at running Cabinet government or so incapable of finding a stable team to run 10 Downing Street. I think readers will be aware that I was never Johnson’s biggest fan. He cynically supported Brexit because he thought (correctly) that it would make him Prime Minister (though he screwed up on the first attempt in 2016), building on a career of lies about Europe and about his personal life. In office as Foreign Secretary, he displayed casual incompetence to the point where he endangered the life of a British citizen held captive in Iran. He endorsed Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU, before deciding that it would be more convenient to resign in protest, disrupting and upstaging a Balkans conference in London that the UK had laboured on for months. From then on, it was only a matter of time before he got to Number 10. During one of many episodes of derangement in Downing Street, Johnson is to be found raving: “I am meant to be in control. I am the führer. I’m the king who takes the decisions.” The would-be great dictator was never in control because he was incapable of performing even some of the most basic functions of a leader. It was all going swimmingly for these two and then last weekend, to put it bluntly, Sale and Gloucester got slapped. Let’s start with Sale. The 2023 runners-up put in one of their worst performances in recent memory as they were battered by Exeter Chiefs 43-0 — the first time Sale have been left pointless since a defeat... Sale Sharks v Gloucester Such has been the pace of modern politics since then, that Johnson at 10 didn’t make it out even for Boris’s immediate successor. Two prime ministers on from him, we now have the authoritative account of what he did with his time in power. That doesn’t make it any more comfortable for Johnson, who unlike Cameron hasn’t retreated for a period of silence in a shepherd’s hut. Instead, it serves as a cautionary reminder for those who are still dreaming of a Terminator-style Boris sequel.The second moment was when Johnson ‘told his startled officials “Put down in 3,000 words what you think my foreign policy should be.”’ Boris Johnson was a man fit to lead and perform, but never to govern and articulate. A chronic people-pleaser, with an awful taste in colleagues and an even worse taste in advice, his premiership was defined by circumstance so much more than his own decision. Here was a prime minister with a potential for greatness, surrounded by supremely able people, who waffled and squandered his way to an early grave at the hands of people he could never let down. As much as he longed to be a Thatcher or a Churchill, he was so much the Brown or Callaghan he had dreaded from the start. This series about recent prime ministers is one I’ve been meaning to catch up with . This one is a fair and balanced account of an era I don’t love . It’s nuanced about what Johnson is to blame for and what he isn’t , especially with Covid . The third is a moment in which Seldon and Newell analyse one of the elements in Johnson’s downfall. This is what they say:

Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon, Raymond Newell | Waterstones

A spokesperson for Johnson told the Times, which has serialised the book, that the revelations were “the usual malevolent and sexist twaddle” from the former PM’s enemies. Throughout, the authors keep returning to the phrase: “In his beginning, was his end” which sums up Johnson’s premiership – he was brought down by sleaze and scandal after proving himself entirely incapable of the role of Prime Minister, something that should surprise nobody. Ultimately, Johnson is little more than a bumbler. Cummings, however, is more complex and interesting. He provided “decisiveness and clarity where Johnson offered custard and frivolity” and was “evidence-driven, immensely industrious and got things done”. But he was also immensely destructive, at times unhinged, and ruthlessly removed alternative power bases within Whitehall. Johnson is viewed as being frightened of him, pathetically proclaiming that “I am the Führer, I am the King” in frustration at being sidelined by his adviser. Extraordinarily, Cummings was effectively able to remove both the chancellor (Sajid Javid) and the cabinet secretary (Mark Sedwill) and choose their successors. Cummings left both the cabinet and the civil service hollowed out and in a state of fear. In the end was his beginning as Anthony Seldon puts very succinctly. The PM BJ most resembled was Lloyd George in both his character (serial womanisers) and governing approach (candidate approach to Britain’s institutions). However, where Lloyd George triumphed in WW1, BJ failed miserably in his war moment - Covid. BJ was an insider desperate to be seen as an outside, while LG was an outsider desperate to be seen as an insider. A PM (or any leader really) is only as good as the team they have around them. LG understood this, BJ did not. BJ thought that governing was like his time at City Hall, a lot of PR, ceremonies and popularity, with no need to have the desire to do the hard work to solve policy issues. BJ was definitively supportive of staying within the EU. In a 2001 book about his Henley constituency, his said that to exit Europe was to lose influence over a continent that it was in Britain’s interest to keep onside. He secretly despised the ERG, but knew his future depended on them. Cummings was one of the few participants in that Downing Street and Whitehall farce who did not speak to Seldon. The author does not feel that the omission is significant, since Cummings has written so very much about this period, “and his footprints are over everything anyway. People will make their own judgments,” he says of what he discovered, “but I don’t think that it’s remotely unfair to Cummings or for that matter to Johnson.”Upon seeing the manifesto BJ was furious that none of his ambition/ideas was inserted – which is another reason why his premiership failed so badly. The manifesto did not actually contain any policies on levelling up/BJ hated it. He did not realise that it was designed to purely secure victory and be as risk free as possible – undermining his claim that he had a mandate from the British people. Carrie Simmons became increasingly involved in the campaign, and was worries about the impact that skipping an Andrew Neil interview would have. BJ to her face agreed to do the interview, only to turn around to Cain and DC and say to their face, you are correct we must not do the interview. This demonstrated a key trait of BJ and why he never could build a successful team around him because he could never trust anyone (which DC loved as it gave him more power. DC would regularly talk about the need to have a good team, but knew this would expose his own weaknesses). How did Johnson play upstairs-downstairs between his Cabinet and his new wife, Carrie? To what extent did Johnson prefer infighting rather than coherent government? If you have been paying any attention to the British political landscape over the last seven years nothing in this detailed book will come as any surprise at all.