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

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Cummings also barred Johnson from meeting Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, it states. “It was a very odd insight into the mentality of No 10 and resulted in a grovelling phone call of apology,” said Brady. “Cummings had contempt for our MPs and thought that we should be grateful for being in government, for the general election result, and that our job was now merely to behave.” He was exceptional. . .. he was ‘exceptionally bad’ as commented by Jenny Jones on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions’ in July, 2022: The distinguished historian and headteacher discusses his latest book about a contemporary prime minister, a devastating – and dispiriting – account of Johnson’s chaotic reign How did Johnson play upstairs-downstairs between his Cabinet and his new wife, Carrie? To what extent did Johnson prefer infighting rather than coherent government? You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side.

Johnson at 10 rings with disapproval at Boris’s endless Johnson at 10 rings with disapproval at Boris’s endless

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.Despite the fact that Liz Truss said, ‘Boris, you are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle’, to what extent was Truss loyal to him? 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. To the bitter end, he blamed everyone but himself for the implosion of his premiership. The authors are right to dismiss that as another of his fictions. Bad King Boris was dethroned because he was and always had been utterly unfit to wear the crown.

Johnson at 10 (Audio Download): Anthony Seldon, Raymond Johnson at 10 (Audio Download): Anthony Seldon, Raymond

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.In the end was his beginning as Anthony Seldon puts very succinctly. The PM BJ most resembled was Lloyd George in both his character (serial womanisers) and governing approach (candidate approach to Britain’s institutions). However, where Lloyd George triumphed in WW1, BJ failed miserably in his war moment - Covid. BJ was an insider desperate to be seen as an outside, while LG was an outsider desperate to be seen as an insider. A PM (or any leader really) is only as good as the team they have around them. LG understood this, BJ did not. BJ thought that governing was like his time at City Hall, a lot of PR, ceremonies and popularity, with no need to have the desire to do the hard work to solve policy issues. BJ was definitively supportive of staying within the EU. In a 2001 book about his Henley constituency, his said that to exit Europe was to lose influence over a continent that it was in Britain’s interest to keep onside. He secretly despised the ERG, but knew his future depended on them. Johnson was a gifted orator and writer but he was hopeless at converting his woolly ideas in substance. With Johnson trust was temporary, what he believed in really was mistrust. He wanted to run No 10 with responsibilities fuzzed, everyone distrusting each other, currying favour and owing their loyalty to Johnson alone - very similar to another politician of recent times.

Johnson, a clown at No 10 The inside story of Boris Johnson, a clown at No 10

Rarely in 300 years and never since 1916 has a Prime Minister been so poor at appointments, so incompetent at running Cabinet government or so incapable of finding a stable team to run 10 Downing Street.Anthony Seldon’s account of Johnson’s time in Downing Street confirms he was hopelessly out of his depth. Having been fired from every job he has ever done, apart from serving as Mayor of London, did we really expect Boris Johnson to act any differently as PM? Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell’s impressive account of Boris Johnson’s chaotic reign lays bare a man utterly unfit to hold the highest office

Johnson administration Extracts from new book shed light on Boris Johnson administration

Survival by divide and rule and the blame game - even “her upstairs” got to carry the can from time to time! Weak and needy, hence the plethora of advisers, some more dysfunctional than others. Comparisons with other PMs, especially Lloyd George, though the authors see Johnson as a very poor second to the Welsh wizzard.The tone is much more judgmental too, but really, how could it not be? Like Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson was a political figure whom people either adore or hate. Those in the first group are prepared to overlook his outrageous mendacity, immoral behaviour, and hyprocrisy because he got them what they wanted - most obviously, a massive election victory and Brexit. Those in the latter group could not overlook those flaws whether or not they liked Brexit. And, in the end, those flaws were enough to undo him. The related tragedy was the national one, in which we are still living. Whatever you thought of Brexit, Seldon argues – he thought it was a bad idea – it did provide “the overdue opportunity to modernise the British state and Britain’s institutions. There was a desperate need to bring the civil service up to date,” he says. “To forge better connections between universities and public life, to rejuvenate professions.” Johnson got away with the big things where others bailed him out but it was the smaller decisions which were just down to him which really let him down, and ultimately lost him his dream job. Barnard Castle was the perfect opportunity to get rid of Cummings but he dithered. It was the same with Patterson, Partygate and Pincher - all things which could have been dealt with far better but blew up into much larger issues than they actually were. Cummings was one of the few participants in that Downing Street and Whitehall farce who did not speak to Seldon. The author does not feel that the omission is significant, since Cummings has written so very much about this period, “and his footprints are over everything anyway. People will make their own judgments,” he says of what he discovered, “but I don’t think that it’s remotely unfair to Cummings or for that matter to Johnson.” 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?