It was not the most spectacular walkout in recent political history. Michael Heseltine still holds that accolade. On 9 January 1986, enraged by Margaret Thatcher’s behaviour over the Westland helicopter company, he strode out of her Cabinet and into the media scrum outside Number 10 like an angry lion. At that moment, the Thatcher premiership was in peril. She did survive. But it could be argued that Hezza had lit a very long blue touch paper, one which would eventually set off the explosion.
By contrast, Boris Johnson’s behaviour on Tuesday last week – walking out on his predecessor while she spoke in the Commons – seems merely a petty act of discourtesy. Yet it was not a trivial incident. It may tell us something about the looming implosion of his premiership. The responses around him were revealing.
Theresa May has grown in stature since leaving office. Admittedly, it was not difficult to increase her standing from its terminal low base, but she has done it, reminding people why she was once seen as a possible Prime Minister. In this Parliament, she has always behaved with dignity, only speaking when she has something to say, always commanding a respectful audience and – whatever her inner feelings – never giving any hint of rancour. On Wednesday, she looked surprised – no wonder –when Boris stumbled up to shamble off.
There was then a hint of head-shaking plus tolerant amusement: the schoolmistress, very much in control, about to give the naughty boy another telling-off.
On the front bench, Matt Hancock was studiously face-down in his briefing folder, denying the cameras any opportunity to catch his expression. It is unlikely that it would have been supportive of the PM.
Boris has never devoted much attention to the Commons. But he must know the conventions, many of which are based on simple good manners and the need to maintain them in moments of tension. That debate was not even an especially tense affair. Moreover, Bojo is well accustomed to using charm and at least a pretence of manners to get him out of scrapes. He has had well over forty years of practice.
So what happened? He did himself lasting damage with his Parliamentary colleagues: that is what happened.
There was another interesting event last week. On the eve of the lockdown, Boris and Rishi Sunak held a webinar meeting with very important Tory donors. These are troubled times. The PM’s audience expected a proper response: strong answers to probing questions. Although they would have been irritated by facile optimism, they would have welcomed some good reasons for remaining confident. They wanted to tell friends, family and employees that the government knew what it was doing and was in charge.
In the event, facile optimism would have over-stated Boris’s seriousness. Grinning and chuckling throughout, he was holding a wine-glass, as if to emphasise his sympathy for the hospitality sector’s problems. When he did let Sunak speak, he rapidly interrupted him. It may be that he did not want the contrast to be too evident. Anyway, it was. “He was just arsing around” in one participant’s words. When the Tory party next comes calling for funds, that chap will be tightening his grip on his cheque-book, and he will not be alone. If Boris had set out to undermine faith in his leadership, he could not have given a more effective performance.
So why is he behaving in this way? Boris is an almost impossible man to read. He has very few close friends and his acquaintances generally agree about one facet of his character. He has no interest in them. Other human beings exist as a means of his gratification. Any other aspect to their life and work is no concern of his. In part, boys learn to be men by observing their fathers. Stanley seems to have given Boris one endowment and taught him one lesson. The endowment was an insatiable ego. The lesson: that you can be as selfish as you like as long as you do not let it show.
The ego explains the entry to politics, fuelled by jealousy of David Cameron, who was two years junior to Boris Johnson at school. Boris seemed to take it as an insult that he had been bypassed.
Before reaching the summit, Cameron had spent years working on economic policy, social policy, the environment: indeed, on all the important issues that would confront a government. There was none of that with Boris. In his entire career, he has never thought through a complex problem: never shown any sign of political or moral depth. In one of the Just William books, William announces his intention of becoming King. One of the outlaws asked him what he would do if he got his wish? “I’ll rule” came the reply. For William, read Boris: this is not the only resemblance between the two.
With all faults, as they would say in the book trade, the Tory Party disregarded this. Although posterity may well enquire why, there is a simple explanation: Jeremy Corbyn. Millions of sensible people in this country were terrified of the prospect of a Corbyn government. This fear was shared by large numbers of Tory MPs. So they were looking for a winner. Boris seemed to be the man.
There were two unspoken anxieties. Would Boris be able to get through an election campaign without saying something grotesquely idiotic? Answer, yes, but only just. Second, would there be a television appearance by the matron of a home for fallen women, saying: “I can wrestle with my conscience no more. I must speak out. All the fourteen gels in my care have told me the same story: that they were seduced by the Prime Minister.” Answer: all the homes for fallen women have long since been closed down, thank God.
So, Boris won and appeared to have earned his party’s eternal gratitude, a commodity which is as bankable as a Boris promise. Yet it would have been all right, but for the virus. He would have been able to swan around, having cake, eating cake, cake all round – but for the virus. It did make enormous demands on him; that is why we have prime ministers.
Sometimes, they have to cope with enormous demands. “Heat” and “kitchen” come to mind. The prime-ministerial kitchen is not just for cooking cake. It might seem unfair and Boris would be more deserving of sympathy if he had displayed fairness in his dealings with others. As it is, he has proved that he is not up to the job.
Early on, he rejected advice to put a general in charge: a massive mistake. More recently, he and his advisers have been unable to get their heads round the figures. This has now communicated itself to the public. The “R” figure, the new infection rate, the hospitalisation rate: are they rising or falling? A lot of people who do not know their Rs from their elbow have come to a simple conclusion. Neither does the PM. The haemorrhage of faith in the Government will make it far harder to manage the rest of this lockdown, and its aftermath.
It also places the Tory party in a dilemma. The number of Tory MPs who now insist that they never thought much of Boris is increasing as rapidly as membership of the French Resistance after June 1944. Then again, Boris never commanded much affection, let alone respect. Once he ceases to be a winner, he is of no further use. But there may be an argument for postponing his departure. Let him soak all the poison from the virus and from the EU negotiations, so that the new Leader can start afresh. With a bit of luck, there will be a proper Tory conference next year. It could well be a coronation ceremony for a new leader.
Which brings us back to Boris’s performance on Wednesday. Perhaps he is coming to realise that the game will shortly be up. If so, why should he care? There are rumours about stresses in his private life. One might have thought that he would be used to them by now, but life cannot be pleasant if everything is going wrong on all fronts. In those circumstances, the grandeur of the premiership could easily turn to ashes. Maybe it has.
In his memoirs, Chris Patten discusses John Major’s Premiership, which had plenty of solid achievements. They were not given proper recognition at the time, for which a lot of his own MPs were to blame. Lord Patten concludes by writing: “I only wish that he had enjoyed it more.” That makes one think of Boris now. But there is a difference. John Major deserved to enjoy the premiership. Boris is now getting his just deserts.