IS BoJo plotting a comeback?
That’s the buzz around Westminster as the Tories brace themselves for a decade in the political wilderness, awaiting the next Messiah.
Boris Johnson is plotting a return to mainstream politics, according to the buzz around Westminster
GettyLike the Life Of Brian comic movie hero, Boris is no Messiah[/caption]
AFPBut BoJo would relish the opportunity to take on Starmer having been booted out of the Tory party by ungrateful rivals[/caption]
Likely survivors of the looming Independence Day massacre are already casting around for someone to lead them back from oblivion.
The pickings are slim.
Some front-runners might not even survive the day.
Like the Life Of Brian comic movie hero, Boris Johnson is no Messiah.
He is a very naughty boy.
But he cheers people up and makes them want to vote for him — a priceless talent in today’s depressing landscape.
Some are already fantasising about a weekly Commons showdown between “Big Dog” Boris and the Labour leader he brutally dismissed as “Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest”.
Does the ex-PM dream of rising from the ashes of his premiership to lead his party back to the promised land? Is the Pope a Catholic?
Boris-watcher Andrew Gimson said yesterday: “Friends say Johnson will step forward as the one person who can save the party from the opportunistic takeover bid which Nigel Farage will launch.
“As Johnson’s biographer, I have to say it would be out of character for him not to do this.”
The Blond Bombshell who led the Tories to election triumph in 2019 — only to be booted out by ungrateful rivals three years later — has never forgiven his assassins.
Nothing would give him more glee than to be cheered back into the ring against plodding premier Sir Keir Starmer.
Even those who believe BoJo bungled his first run as PM might be thrilled to see him put some fighting spirit into the battered ranks of a Tory Opposition.
For thin-skinned Starmer it would be the ultimate nightmare.
He is easily riled, absurdly losing his temper last week when a TV audience laughed at yet another reference to his humble working-class origins.
In fact his dad was a skilled toolmaker who ran his own business and bought his own home in leafy Surrey.
Like me, also the son of a tradesman, Starmer won a place at Reigate Grammar School, then a bastion of white male privilege — a fact he omitted from his Who’s Who entry until it became a news story.
Tellingly, his nickname at university was “King of the Middle Class Radicals”, according to a book by Lord Ashcroft.
This shape-shifting approach to the facts is at the heart of the Starmer story.
He was a fervent supporter of fellow socialist Jeremy Corbyn — until Jezza lost the 2019 election.
Easily riled
Now Starmer admits he was making it up. He never believed Corbyn could win.
This might strike you as deceitful, perhaps even typical, but let’s skip his many other backflips and U-turns and focus on July 4.
Starmer’s Labour manifesto promises no more taxes on working people.
But what about a near-certain explosion in council tax? A sharp rise in fuel duty?
And the extension of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s hated Ulez charge into nationwide road-pricing to pay for Labour’s “green crap”?
Aspiring home owners such as Keir’s working-class dad face higher stamp duty — and capital gains tax if they move house.
Furtive Starmer won’t talk about these pending bombshells.
Nor is he discussing his plan to hand over the law-making and economic power of elected Westminster MPs to mostly Labour-run regional assemblies and town halls.
Under Labour plans, unaccountable Supreme Court judges will have the final say, not elected MPs and ministers.
We’ve already seen how disastrously this has worked out in Wales, Scotland and London.
Ultimate egotist
“It will effectively eradicate our traditions of parliamentary democracy,” says constitutional authority Dr David Starkey.
“Parliament might as well not exist.”
So, fertile territory for a fluent Opposition leader, inspired perhaps by the return of populist ex-President Donald Trump for a second term in the White House.
There is one fly in the ointment.
Reform Party insurgent Nigel Farage is tipped to win half a dozen seats and a loud voice in the new Parliament.
Farage, the ultimate egotist, also plans to be Tory leader.
He and Boris are at odds over immigration, the key issue of this election.
There might be room for a deal.
But is there room for two wannabe leaders, both with a gigantic Messiah complex?
Want a bet?
CRAIG WILLIAMS, a close aide to Rishi Sunak, who “fluttered” £100 on a July 4 election days before the bombshell date was announced, is standing again as a Tory MP.
We don’t know what odds he was offered but they were probably long and lucrative.
“I clearly made a huge error of judgment, that’s for sure, and I apologise,” weaselled Williams, now under scrutiny by the Gambling Commission.
It would be a shame if Williams won his seat, only to be accused of cheating, a criminal offence carrying a possible two-year jail term.