It reads like a declaration of war, but in reality, Friday’s resignation statement matters because Boris Johnson is throwing in the towel on his political career.
Yes, there are signs of a third political comeback in his kinetic resignation statement.
“Never encourage it,” say the experts on the cheap seats.
Yes, there will be deputies regretting his departure if the tories disappoint in the next general election and ask him to come back. But he won’t be there.
Johnson he had a choice this week, and he could have chosen to stay.
This would have meant standing and fighting the verdict of the committee of privileges, with all the opprobrium which he felt was unjustly heaped upon him.
Live politics: Boris Johnson resigns
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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns
He would then have had to watch Conservative MPs being asked to decide whether to support him.
Yes, some would. But despite the vocal minority of supporters, my conversations suggest that the raw numbers prepared to back Boris Johnson against a Tory-dominated committee accusing him of deliberately misleading the Commons in excruciating detail may not have gone down well with him to the former prime minister.
Should he lose the vote and face 10 or more days of suspension, he would also face the possibility of a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency.
His majority of 7,210 is within the margin of a possible sweep, which would mark a decisively mortifying end to his political career.
Even if he won this vote, what good would it do?
There is no conceivable path for him to become leader again.
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“Johnson was not a good representative of Uxbridge”
He would continue as he has since he was dropped as prime minister: the ghost of the Tory party, undermining altar and, if the Tories lose the next election, their successors.
No one has the ability to suck the oxygen out of the room like Johnson, with the media and part of the Conservative Party still hanging on his every word as if it mattered, this will not help the current or future leadership contests.
So instead, Johnson chose to leave. It was a bold choice, but in his own interest.
This gives him a chance to fight his way out on his own terms, targeting enemies inside and outside the Conservative party and writing his own first version of history, all with the timing of his election and the focus firmly on what flight. people to see
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Declaration of full resignation
What caused the resignation of the former prime minister?
It frees him up to continue making massive incomes outside of Westminster, now without the burden of declaring it on the Register of Members’ Interests.
And will he continue to comment on politics, perhaps returning to a column in the Daily Telegraph?
Maybe it could help buy The Daily Telegraph?
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All with the small but vocal hardliners suggesting that his impeachment is the reason for the likely electoral difficulties facing his successor.
There was no sign Friday night that his departure had sparked a conservative civil war, as allies Come on Patel and pensive but contained Simon Clarke.
No sign of more by-elections beyond the two already known.
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“Boris brought this on himself”
Now he can focus on honing his legacy: yes, the 2019 election, Brexit, the vaccine and leading the world in Ukraine, but also changing the way politics works in this country. His method was unlikely to stick, but it will never be forgotten.
Never one to shy away from the limelight, his momentous decision was to make sure he showed his best side. That is why, once again, on Friday he voted to leave: to preserve the myth, and not to test it against reality.
