Johnson at 10: The Inside Story: The Bestselling Political Biography of the Year

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This mirthless farce had tragic real-world consequences. Utterly unsuited to handling a crisis as grave as the pandemic, his endless prevarications and about-turns cost lives. “He wildly oscillated in what he thought,” observes one official. “In one day he would have three meetings in which he would say three completely different things depending on who was present, and then deny that he had changed his position.” His personal brush with Covid encouraged some to think it might prompt a reform of his behaviour. They were disappointed. Even coming near to death couldn’t remedy character flaws that were so deeply ingrained. Secondly, it refutes the dangerous myth that Boris Johnson was foiled by a remainer establishment, rather than his own incompetence. His former chief of staff Eddie Lister declares that there is “no evidence that the civil service impeded the delivery of Brexit” and the authors conclude that if Johnson didn’t always get what he wanted from Whitehall, that’s because he led it poorly.

Johnson at 10, review: Rings with disapproval at Boris’s Johnson at 10, review: Rings with disapproval at Boris’s

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A brilliant book about a man who had the potential to be one of the great Prime Ministers of the UK and had the opportunities to be, but ultimately let himself down due to his self-centredness and his inability to tell the truth at any time. This was an explosive book! The tell all details of Boris Johnson's short reign as Prime Minister of what was once a first world country but which is now rapidly becoming a third world country, and all deepened by the rule of a short term egotistical man.

Johnson at 10 – Atlantic Books Johnson at 10 – Atlantic Books

Covid and Cummings are the central two chapters of the book and they complement one another perfectly. Covid would have been difficult for any PM but did not suit Johnson as it commanded too much detail. Cummings ended up running the show, and it was obvious from the daily briefings at the time that officials were having an enormous say in the decision-making during the pandemic.The tragedy of that fact was twofold, Seldon argues. For one thing Johnson was a non-starter as a competent prime minister, let alone a great one. The historian numbers nine out of 57 in that latter category (Attlee and Thatcher are the two who make the cut postwar). “The great prime ministers are all there at moments of great historical importance,” he says. “But they have to respond to them well. Chamberlain didn’t; Churchill in 1940, did. Asquith didn’t; Lloyd George did in 1916. Johnson had Brexit, he had the pandemic, he had the invasion of Ukraine and incipient third world war. He could have been the prime minister he craved to be, but he wasn’t, because of his utter inability to learn.” We saw some fear of some of the people around Gordon Brown, but this was off the scale. And that’s a deeply unhealthy facet of modern government

Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell review

It is a book to be appreciated for all of the diligent hard work that the authors have put into it though. Ultimately, Johnson is little more than a bumbler. Cummings, however, is more complex and interesting. He provided “decisiveness and clarity where Johnson offered custard and frivolity” and was “evidence-driven, immensely industrious and got things done”. But he was also immensely destructive, at times unhinged, and ruthlessly removed alternative power bases within Whitehall. Johnson is viewed as being frightened of him, pathetically proclaiming that “I am the Führer, I am the King” in frustration at being sidelined by his adviser. Extraordinarily, Cummings was effectively able to remove both the chancellor (Sajid Javid) and the cabinet secretary (Mark Sedwill) and choose their successors. Cummings left both the cabinet and the civil service hollowed out and in a state of fear. To those many people who say, ‘Of course he believed in Brexit’, the evidence is absolutely clear,” Seldon says. “From the beginning it was striking that he believed that there was a cause far higher than Britain’s economic interests, than Britain’s relationship with Europe, than Britain’s place in the world, than the strength of the union. That cause was his own advancement.”After worrying in his first few months that he would end up being the briefest PM in history ( that honour fell to his successor, on whom Seldon is presumably only preparing a pamphlet rather than a full book), Johnson then assumed that with Brexit done, life would be relatively plain-sailing.

Johnson at 10: The Inside Story by Anthony Seldon | Goodreads Johnson at 10: The Inside Story by Anthony Seldon | Goodreads

An obvious lazy approach/clear avoidance of doing the tough boring work. Implementation, and strategy he avoided at all costs. On occasions he could show substance, a sense of the necessity of forensic attention to detail, and exhibit firm and purposeful chairmanship and focused hard work, but rarely and only when the subject matter had absorbed his interest. But, as the authors point out, occasional, unpredictable manifestations of these qualities are, in a Prime Minister, inadequate to ensure good government. Johnson remains, in the authors’ concluding words, a man ‘with the potential, the aspirations and the opportunity to be one of Britain’s great Prime Ministers. His unequivocal exclusion from that club can be laid at the feet of no one else, but himself.’ Could he have been a better leader, if he had paid more attention to his briefs, liaised closer with his own cabinet ministers, MPs and cabinet staff, despite Covid and the war in Ukraine?This is hardly the first book about Johnson, with plenty of ink being spilled over the politician’s tumultuous childhood and his rise to power, and indeed his downfall. Johnson at 10 wisely summarises the other accounts of his early life, and focuses instead on the psychodrama of his time at the top. The authors do apportion some praise as well as criticism. His greatest accomplishments were on global issues where broad brush strokes were needed and not the fine detail he struggles with. Getting a deal on Brexit, Net Zero and Ukraine is what he'll be remembered for. With the right team and without Covid (which saw off Trump too) he could have been a better PM, but his decision-making around appointments sounds consistently poor.