Boris Johnson’s standing as an MP. Brace yourself for Bozza-mania
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Version 0 of 1. Boris Johnson’s admission that he will “in all probability” seek to return to parliament at next year’s general election comes as a relief after the endless months of speculation, but also triggers the start of the next unending orgy of media fascination about his plans for becoming leader of the Conservative party, leader of the country and, should the opportunity present itself, leader of the universe too. Not that this is irrelevant. Far from it. Whatever doubts voters may have about the suitability of “good old Boris” for high national office, none should question his gargantuan ambition. A conviction Friedmanite, greed is his creed. His policy on cake, as he likes people to know, is to have it and eat it in large amounts. He is sticking to his pledge to complete his second term as London mayor, which is due to end in 2016. He’s previously said that this role “cannot be combined with any other political capacity”, but there is no rule to prevent him being an MP at the same time (there is also precedent, as Ken Livingstone was an MP when elected mayor in 2000 and didn’t vacate his seat for several months). The mayoralty will continue to provide a spotlit platform from which Johnson can espouse his political philosophies to audiences far beyond the capital. How afraid should we be of Johnson moving in stages from City Hall, home of the London mayoralty, to No 10? Look beyond his all-conquering personality, that clever, cultivated, half-satirical buffoonery, and discover an intellectual consistency unusual in Tory politicians. Johnson is both an economic and a social liberal. He’s a free enterprise evangelist whose instinctive attitude to tighter regulation is to regard it as a lethal disease. Yet he has never carried on like those moral authoritarian Tories of the Thatcher years. He’s for live and let live, just as long as minorities don’t go around asking the taxpayer to fund their pursuit of grievances. He may be in no position to utter pieties about marital fidelity, but it’s not his inclination anyway. In other ways he challenges Tory cliche as well. Where others applaud the global movement of capital but not of labour, Johnson notes with some pride that he is pretty much the only politician in Britain who says out loud that immigration is a good thing. Yes, it’s a nuanced welcome – French bankers and brainy go-getters from Singapore are what he mostly has in mind rather than poor Africans desperately jumping lorries in Calais. He has, though, grasped that the influx of foreign money and foreign workers alike was integral to London’s recovery as an economic entity from the mid-80s. His big disclosure today followed a speech about how London would be better off outside the European Union unless David Cameron can negotiate radical reforms. Inevitably, the speech – made at the launch of a paper by his economics adviser, Gerard Lyons – has been denounced by opponents as a positioning exercise. It certainly won’t do him any harm. To win any future leadership contest, Johnson would need the backing of plenty of Tory backbenchers followed by most of the votes of the party membership. A bold but measured Euroscepticism will speak to the guts of both groups. So let’s brace ourselves for the next attack of Bozza-mania. The high point so far came in 2012. After winning a second term as London mayor, Johnson then soaked up the reflected rays of the Olympics before taking his party’s annual conference by storm. In the hall at Birmingham, Cameron, tracked down by TV cameras, made a good show of lapping up the outrageous jollity of Johnson’s speech, which praised and impertinently teased him at the same time. Oh, how he laughed! But the core power of Johnson, his endless popularity, meant he could do nothing else. Cameron has welcomed Johnson’s decision to seek a Commons seat: “I’ve always said I want my star players on the pitch”. He surely knows better than anyone that Johnson will never be anyone’s player but his own. Great news that Boris plans to stand at next year's general election - I've always said I want my star players on the pitch. |