Election won, real challenges begin for Boris Johnson

IN the ultimate reckoning, it was the British electorate’s frustration and fatigue with the interminable Brexit process and their desire to extinguish the three-and-a-half-year uncertainty that handed victory to a simple slogan relentlessly reiterated: “Get Brexit Done.” This was Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s message from the moment he made an electioneering acceptance speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street in July, laced with a promise to end the austerity prevailing since the 2008-09 global economic meltdown, after being invited by the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to succeed fellow Conservative Theresa May.

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A sense of democracy ran deep among the voters. Even a section of remainers felt conscience-stricken to honour the verdict of the 2016 referendum, which was to leave the European Union (EU). In such an environment, any hint of delay was met with discomfort. Therefore, the main Opposition Labour Party’s proposal of fresh negotiations with the EU and a choice between a consequent deal and no Brexit in a second plebiscite was clearly rejected.

Equally, a lightweight campaign by an inexperienced leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson (who lost her own seat), to scrap Brexit altogether without reference to public opinion was deemed to be undemocratic. Pollsters credited the Libs Dems with 24 per cent support when the elections were announced. This crumbled to half and a shambolic 11 seats.

The outcome underlined Johnson’s remarkable unbeaten record at hustings. Admittedly, confronting him was a practically unelectable left-wing radical, Jeremy Corbyn of Labour. But the latter’s membership at 6,00,000 was four times the size of the Tories; and underwritten as it is by trade unions, it was not lacking in resources either. The difference lay in the button that was pressed.

In an unusual, overwhelmingly single issue election, traditionally debated topics like economy, health, housing, education and climate change were given short shrift. In any case, Johnson had been first off the block on promising more nurses and policemen and better hospitals and schools. Few were listening when Corbyn belatedly countered with a scrapping of university tuition fees.

Johnson’s one-point agenda of Brexit hit the bull’s eye; he never deviated from the script and was predictably rewarded. The clownish, controversial, Eton and Oxford educated journalist-turned-politician admirably demonstrated possessing an antenna for an opportunity and capitalising on it.

While the leaden-footed Corbyn was there for the taking, it was not so straightforward at the start. The ultra-nationalist Brexit Party was a potential spoiler. It was, though, seen off in a backroom stitch up whereby it decided not to post candidates in Conservative held seats, but to contest in constituencies with Labour MPs. In effect, it gifted leave voters to the Tories and lured them from Labour to significantly benefit the former and damage the latter.

The result means the United Kingdom will now almost certainly commence the process of exiting the EU by February 1 next, based on a deal reached between Johnson and the European Commission in October. It’s a matter for conjecture whether Britain will seek to amend clauses which de facto cut adrift Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain vis-à-vis customs union and is deeply upsetting for loyalists in the region.

However, if tackling this initial phase has been tough, the next stage could be tougher. The end of 2020 has been pegged as the deadline to reach a free trade agreement — a blistering self-infliction — where the international average for such convergence is seven years. Furthermore, in seeking a best of both worlds in economic relations with the EU and the United States, Britain needs to be careful about not falling between two stools.

What, of course, Johnson is empowered with is flexibility born out of a handsome majority. He can no longer be held hostage by the Europhobic rump of the European Research Group in his party. Thus, if there’s somewhere a decent, sensible, one-nation Johnson, which has hitherto been suppressed by circumstances, now is the time for such a persona to emerge.

Johnson’s triumph is essentially founded on English insularity; and the overall distribution of spoils is a recipe for heightened tension between London and Scotland, where the anti-Brexit Scottish National Party has won 80 per cent of the seats and sees this as justification to press for another independence referendum.

Finally, the British Prime Minister, notwithstanding his exposure to the country, is not as enthusiastic about India as David Cameron was. When the Indian Journalists’ Association (Europe) invited him to dinner when he was Foreign Secretary, he, half in jest, half in seriousness, focussed on the exorbitant duty levied by India on Scotch whisky. It would be a folly to expect him to be soft on South Block.

— The writer is a senior journalist based in the UK