The Fall of Boris Johnson: The Full Story

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His latest (but not necessarily final) tome is almost as elegantly written as its predecessors, even if his hero’s forced resignation must have messed with the publishing schedule. If Johnson had been a historical figure, a cavalier whose antics did no harm to the people around him, I would have enjoyed reading this homage almost as much as Gimson seems to have enjoyed writing it. Imagine another world in which neither of these two books could have been written. Jeremy Hunt becomes prime minister in 2019. He takes a moderated version of Brexit through the House of Commons without the need to seek another mandate. There is no general election in 2019 and therefore no acceleration of the Labour recovery. In May 2022 Hunt beats Jeremy Corbyn comfortably in a general election and, six months later, he looks on as his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivers the Autumn Statement. Across the dispatch box the fledgling leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, contemplates the years ahead. It is clear that Payne doesn’t quite believe in his own project. By the epilogue he is still oscillating between tragedy and thriller. He concludes that “few anticipated just how chaotic it would be”. I’m afraid that simply isn’t true. That was, indeed, the principal objection to Johnson. Payne then fizzles out in a series of lengthy anonymous quotes and concludes lamely that Johnson’s fall was not inevitable although it was always quite likely. I loathe everything that Boris Johnson is and stands for. Bombastic, narcissistic, arrogant, convinced the rules only apply to others, self serving and utterly convinced he is right as well as being an opportunistic serial liar. It speaks a lot to the current state of political reality that someone like him, and Trump, were able to rise to the top of the power tree in their respective countries. Given that, it is unsurprising that I read this with a great deal of schadenfreude as well as interest in how events unfolded. Boris Johnson was touted as the saviour of the country and the Conservative Party, obtaining a huge commons majority and finally "getting Brexit done". But within three short years, he was deposed in disgrace, leaving the country in crisis.

Entertaining...this is an essential book for anyone who seeks to understand [Johnson]. Gimson has a profound understanding of the character and urges of his subject... peppered with brilliant observations...A book that is elegant, wise and full of waspish delight...much to entertain, amuse and provoke thought.' In the end, Sunak made the eye-catching move of drafting a full resignation statement. The words were shared with Lord Hague, the former Tory leader and a Times columnist, who had preceded Sunak as MP for Richmond. Soon, with more people at the company also having separately found out about the draft statement, whispers of the dramatic move were spreading among senior figures at Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper.We did change the course of international opinion," believed one insider. A former cabinet minister argued that only Boris could've pulled it off: "He took on the blob" of policy orthodoxy "and won, it was a shame he could not do it on other matters, too." Sometimes Cabinet ministers would text Johnson in a frantic lobbying effort during group video calls. Others used WhatsApp to get round the usual channels. Securing face time was seen as a third route to influence, leading to tussles about who would be last with Boris before a decision was taken. In Johnsonland, a yes was not guaranteed to stay a yes; a no need not be the end of the debate. A firm friend of Johnson, who in public would be considered one of his most prominent allies, reached a bleaker conclusion: ‘He’s a columnist, right? Columnists are used to writing their column, forgetting it and moving on to the next one. And you can’t as a national leader operate in that way. You have to follow through… He never made a transition from being someone who could entertain and attract attention and emotionally connect to the hard work of being Prime Minister. He was ill-disciplined.’ Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson said he would step down less than three years after his landslide election victory, following a series of scandals that have ensnared his government. The real problem – and root of Johnson’s demise – was nothing to do with Sunak. ‘He kept making the same mistake, which was getting himself into a terrible position by not telling the truth, getting other people to go out and say the same thing, then the house of cards collapsing,’ the former leader said.

This book points to the main reasons why Boris fell before he should have. There seems to be a finality to his tenure as soon as the book starts. I did find it very informative and it does give a good timeline of the scandals that but Boris. I think all the swearing could have been toned down though. Yes people swear but blimey... Those reasons could be accurate or could be nonsense, but combined they make up almost as much analysis as Payne offers in an entire book. Lots of his analysis also relies on the usual tropes about Johnson and his character, rather than events as they happened.With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson's downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today.

An entertaining and illuminating fly on the wall romp through Boris Johnson's final nine months, where the fly, Seb Payne, must frequently have thought he was on hallucinogens. It's more fun than a Downing Street party and contains a suitcase full of news. But to put his downfall down solely to an ‘ouster’, or rebels who played a part during the slide, would be remiss. For that narrative ignores the critical wider reality. The reason Johnson lost his premiership was not Sunak; it was not Sunak who had allowed a culture of Covid law-breaking to develop in Downing Street, with some 126 fines being issued to 83 people over at least eight events. It was not Sunak who rolled out blanket public denials that would be proved palpably false. Yet it was Sunak, with Javid, who triggered the end. As Johnson liked to remind aides when things got turbulent, almost every Tory MP has half an eye on becoming prime minister. He spoke from personal experience. After reading the first volume of Margaret Thatchers biography, I thought I'd read a more modern book concerning a Prime Minister. I must admit I got this book purely on the basis that it was about Boris Johnson. Yes, it's not a book that is from his better days but it is a necessary read. The Prime Minister had just been told that the second most important figure in his government had quit. Rishi Sunak was out – and without giving his boss any warning. No meeting was requested by the Chancellor to explain his reasons, as had been the case with Sajid Javid, the departing Health Secretary, earlier that day, 5 July 2022. There was no conversation over the phone; not even a text. It fell to the Number 10 political secretary to tell his boss a resignation letter was on the way. Johnson was raging. ‘Who the f--k does he think he is?’

Well-written, with a discerning eye for detail, Andrew Gimson’s biography sets out to understand the electoral appeal of a man so frequently dismissed as a charlatan and a clown.'.