General Election 2019: Boris tries to get back on track

The rocky start to the Conservative campaign continued today. With the party under pressure over a string of alleged “gaffes” and blunders, Boris Johnson attempted to get it back on track with a keynote speech formally launching the Tory bid for a majority.

Speaking in front of Number 10, the Prime Minister echoed and reinforced many of the contents of an article that had been emblazoned on the front of The Daily Telegraph. He stated that the election will be a “choice” between a resolution to Brexit, free enterprise, and the promotion of freedom abroad on the one hand, and for “dither and delay” on Brexit, high taxes, and a Corbyn-McDonnell duo cosying up to the Kremlin on the other.

If political campaigns are about generating momentum, the Tories are in a spot of trouble. They have been bogged down by calamity in recent days. Despite the Prime Minister’s efforts, his hope of whipping up campaigning vim has been overshadowed by a series of “scandals” which have involved senior Conservatives.

Yesterday, Jacob Rees-Mogg said in an interview on LBC radio with Nick Ferrari that those in the Grenfell tower fire with “common sense” would not have followed instructions from members of the fire brigade to stay in their homes during the fire. This was made worse when Andrew Bridgen MP attempted to defend Rees-Mogg’s comments on BBC Radio 4 soon after. There was much media outrage. Both have subsequently apologised.

If this was an inauspicious start, then it has been compounded by further problems today. Allegations of dishonesty were thrown the way of CCHQ after they were accused of doctoring footage of an interview which Kier Starmer conducted this morning. Meanwhile, Welsh secretary Alun Cairns quit his post after claims that he lied about knowing a former Welsh Assembly member was involved in sabotaging a rape trial. When political woes come, it seems they do not come in single spies but in whole battalions.

Then there was the somewhat strange article written by Johnson in the Telegraph, which has invoked a frenzy of criticisms. Some have argued that comparisons which Johnson made between Jeremy Corbyn and Joseph Stalin are crass and unfair, though they did not always specify whether this was more insulting to Jeremy or to Joseph.

The truth, however, is that while these scandals have embarrassed the Conservatives, it does not mean that this will have any tangible impact upon their prospects. There is not as yet any indication whether or not these apparent “humiliations” will actually play much beyond the Westminster media bubble.

Boris Johnson also ended the day on a more positive note, with a move intended to regain the initiative and put his party’s election campaign back firing on all cylinders. The entire Cabinet upped sticks to Birmingham, where Boris Johnson addressed a rally of Conservative activists for the first of the election campaign.

Johnson came out to rock music and cheers of “Boris, Boris, Boris” from those present after a half hour of waiting for Bojo. Like Priti Patel and James Cleverly, who provided the warm up acts for the Bojo show, he repeated that the Conservatives did not want this election, but that Britain needs it. It was Boris on the campaign trail at his most frenetic, energetic, and spontaneous.

He interspersed pre-prepared soundbites with off the cuff witticisms about the “Bermuda triangle of Labour’s Brexit policy” resembling the hapless knights of “Monty Python’s holy grail”. One line from the speech which received resounding cheers from the party activists was: “Come with us, and we will get Brexit done”.

As far as campaigning goes, this has been a tough day at the office for the Tories, but there is still a long way to go until the 12th of December. Boris drummed up some enthusiasm among the rank and file in Birmingham and it was a strong finish after a torrid two days. Boris will hope that will help get the Conservative campaign back on track.

The campaign narrative took another twist as Boris was speaking this evening. Labour’s Tom Watson announced that he is quitting national politics. He won’t stand in West Bromwich East, which suggests he thinks the Tories will win the seat.