If Boris goes, the next PM, Tory or Labour will take us BACK into the EU
BORIS JOHNSON just keeps on surviving.
He has survived more political write-offs than almost every other MP put together.
This year, he has survived the Partygate fiasco.
Last week, he survived a no-confidence vote by his own MPs.
But the question he should now be asking is: “For what?"
What is the point of him just surviving if he doesn’t actually do anything? Apart from not being Keir Starmer.
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Johnson came into office in 2019 on a whopping 80-seat majority. Most of which came from voters wanting him to finally deliver on Brexit.
To give the Prime Minister credit, he did finally actually take us out of the EU.
But he has still failed to build on the opportunity that this gave our country.
He left unfinished business by keeping us under the rule of some European laws.
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And the only policies that his Government seems keen on are self-destructive, green-obsessed ones.
Who voted him into office for that?
But Johnson is lucky. And this week, his rivals have been busily keeping him in office. By accident, of course.
For just as his position looked in peril, one of his own MPs, Tobias Ellwood, accidentally helped save him.
Ellwood suddenly announced that the best way to solve any problems in the UK is to rejoin the EU single market.
Fellow MPs tore into Ellwood. And the PM must have heaved a sigh of relief.
Because here is a reminder of the single thing most likely to save him as PM — the knowledge there are people out there who want to undo the one thing he has done, and take us back into the EU.
It isn’t a quiet movement.
Later this month, Tony Blair will convene a big gathering of pro-Remain figures.
Pro-EU activists from politics and the BBC — of course — will be meeting in London.
And they have many high-profile supporters.
Only recently, die-hard EU-phile Michael Heseltine pondered that without Johnson there might be no more Brexit.
SIGH OF RELIEF
It was a fervent wish of the feverish Heseltine, who has destroyed his reputation over recent years with his spittle-flecked anti-Brexit rants.
But it was also a statement with some truth.
If Johnson goes, might the next Labour or Conservative leader be someone who wants to take us back into the EU?
Consider the people being touted as Johnson’s successor.
Certainly, they include some strong Brexit figures.
But one of the names that keeps coming up as a possible Conservative leader is Jeremy Hunt, another ardent supporter of the EU.
He campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum.
Any changes in his position since then are just him doing what he thinks he needs to do to appeal to his party.
But if Hunt ever did become Conservative leader, the Brexit question would certainly be back on the table.
It would be the same if Starmer’s Labour Party ever came to office. Starmer himself is fiercely pro-EU.
Like his Shadow Cabinet colleagues.
In fact, the principled anti-EU voices in the Labour Party have almost all left the House of Commons. Or put them-selves on mute.
REMAINER ACTIVIST
Would a Starmer government willingly stick to the post-Brexit agreement?
Or might it keep trying to persuade the British people that we just need to take this step, or that step, to get back into the EU?
And it is not just politicians who are at this game.
As we know from recent years, much of the civil service is still filled with political anti-Brexit activists.
The civil service has become wildly politicised over recent decades.
Not least during the era of Tony Blair’s government.
And we were reminded this week of what that can lead to.
In the Home Office, some civil servants are putting up stickers across the department.
“We have the spine to say ‘No Minister’,” they boast. “No to hostile environments, no to shutting down democracy, no to racist deportations.”
Be under no illusions, these messages are a direct attack on their boss.
Some activists in the Home Office believe Home Secretary Priti Patel is pursuing a “racist” immigration policy. In wanting the UK to have real borders.
Civil servants who are meant to enforce the UK’s borders are, in fact, working against this country and its borders.
Why don’t they go and work elsewhere, you might wonder?
Because they know they are more effective if they stay in the Home Office and work against the Government from there.
This, then, is part of the force that this country is up against.
And it is the thing most likely to keep Johnson in Number 10 for now.
All former PMs, ministers, activist journalists and civil servants are desperate to take us back into the EU.
As long as they remain vocal, Johnson will remain in office.
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But what an opportunity he will be missing if that’s all his prime ministership amounts to.
It isn’t enough to survive. The point of surviving is to do something about it. We’ll see if he ever does.
