The Cry of ‘Bring Back Boris’ Echoes From Tories
Lord Cruddus complains Bojo’s ouster was a coup.

“Bring Back Boris!” So say 10,000 and counting members of the Conservative Party. They are unhappy that their leader was unceremoniously cashiered by their Westminster representatives. Let me be the first to assure them: Boris Johnson is already on the leadership ballot.
The “Conservative Post” initiative is spearheaded by two Johnson loyalists, Lord Peter Cruddas and an ex-member of the European Parliament, David Campbell-Bannerman. “The ousting of Boris Johnson as prime minister by a minority of MPs is deeply anti-democratic,” the peer says. “It defies the will of the country and the Conservative Party members who elected him.”
Lord Cruddus approaches apoplexy. “I am ashamed this can happen in Britain, the birthplace of modern democracy,” he sputters. “It amounts to a coup.”
Not quite, m’Lord. Britain benefits from parliamentary government. It is unlike America’s presidential system. Executive power is not entrusted to one politician alone. It is shared among the Cabinet, of whom the premier is first among equals — primus inter pares — and the parliamentary party at large.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Johnson shares the popular umbrage. He wants to stay atop the “greasy pole” and contest the next general election as prime minister. Queried by Lord Cruddas if he would “wipe away” his resignation as if with “a magic wand,” BoJo reportedly replied: “I would wipe away everything that stops me being PM in a second.”
Downing Street, meanwhile, is downplaying the rumor that Boris wants to stay on and fight another day. Affirms a No. 10 spokeswoman, “The Prime Minister has resigned as party leader and set out his intention to stand down.”
What gives this story legs are all those rank-and-file Tories taking exception to Conservative MPs having defenestrated their man, whom they’d just put into power in the previous leadership vote in 2019.
Yet it is obvious to all (excepting Boris and his supporters), that the prime minister lost the confidence of the House of Commons. Hence, he can no longer serve in the top job. Those are the breaks, that’s parliamentary democracy.
Even if the petition were to succeed — signees are required to provide their membership number, to keep the recall on the up-and-up — who would govern? More than 50 Tories on the payroll vote resigned in a show of no-confidence in Boris’s leadership. Certainly they cannot return to office.
Were Boris to return now, it would be the ultimate farce. The tragedy is that, through indolent management, he is the author of his own misfortune. His party’s parting words ought to echo the oft-repeated congé of Oliver Cromwell: “Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
At the same time, for the party of “individual initiative,” it is disconcerting to see Conservatives lose their heads. Do they no longer believe in personal responsibility? Both BoJo’s, and their own?
Tories once were proud to proclaim “maximal liberty and minimal government.” Now, they seem hell-bent on outsourcing their God-given right to individual autonomy. Witness their eagerness to conform to Covid lockdowns and the spend-and-tax extravagances of the Johnson administration, encapsulated by the euphemisms of “The Great Reset” and “Build Back Better.”
In this regard, Conservatives have little to fear, I am afraid. The two challengers to BoJo’s mantle, Elizabeth Truss and Rishi Sunak, differ little in shaping the ministry they propose to lead. To all intents and purposes, much like the present, save but on tax. Mrs. Truss is for tax cuts now; Mr. Sunak calls cuts “unconservative” and “fantasy” economics.
On all other matters, whether in respect of action on carbon net zero, or inaction on immigration, energy independence, or crime — more of the same. To be fair, Mrs. Truss and Mr. Sunak “signal” changes to differentiate themselves, if not necessarily from the Prime Minister’s policy, than from their opponent.
So the ghost of BoJo stalks this leadership campaign. Curiously, another specter struggles to make itself seen: the ghost of Margaret Thatcher. Somewhat incongruously — given that the prospective new administration can be justifiably argued as Johnson 2.0 — each of the challengers is channeling the Iron Lady. Mr. Sunak styles himself her heir; Truss copies her “pussy bow.”
Generalizing, Mr. Johnson stands for state interventionism while Thatcher represents limited government. By no means is she the model for either candidate to copy uncritically, either with respect to her era or our own time.
Yet to consider the Thatcherite ideal of maximal liberty and minimal government, is to offer Conservative voters and the nation at large not transitional government but an approach to politics that could be truly transformational. Toryism’s reach should exceed its grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
As for the petition to reinstate Mr. Johnson, the Guardian suggests that few of those writing in are really party members. At the same time, the Daily Telegraph cites a poll indicating that as many of the membership — 45 percent — believe Boris should not have resigned as those that do. Potentially a catastrophic philosophical divide within the Conservative party.
Yet there is an alternative rumor circulating around Westminster. Boris asserts that he will be back in office in under a year. Conservative fortunes will decline in his absence and Tory MPs will rue their haste. Like Lord Chatham, BoJo believes that he “can save this country, and that nobody else can.”
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