Opinion: How Britain lost its love for Boris Johnson

Rewritten Article:

Boris Johnson's Farewell Tour: Britain's Waning Love for its Former PM

Boris Johnson, Britain's flamboyant former prime minister, exited his car flanked by a chauffeur and his wife Carrie, destined for a Thanksgiving celebration marking Queen Elizabeth II's 70-year jubilee. Swirling whispers filled the waiting crowd, and complaints quickly surged into loud boos.

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds Attend the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

It's not extraordinary for high-ranking British politicians to endure public ridicule, but the insults at this gathering of monarchists and traditionalists came as an unwelcome surprise. The jubilee festivities had commemorated the absence of the monarch and celebrating the fact that a majority of people voted Conservative in the previous election likely proved disconcerting for Johnson.

In the past, his carefree demeanor and hall-of-fame charm had allowed him to dodge numerous scandals that might have toppled lesser politicians. But after the polite nod in St. Paul's Cathedral, it became apparent that the British public had finally grown tiresome of its former leader.

The disappointing election results merely compounded the problem Johnson had already accepted.

The Conservatives had gauged the electorate's mood during a parliamentary break a week prior to the jubilee celebrations, during whichaute judicata contained the festivities. Johnson had suffered a significant loss of his Midas touch.

The insults confirmed their darkest concerns, and once the festivities concluded and they returned to Westminster, Johnson's colleagues voted against him, believing that there was no point in maintaining power if Johnson had lost his charm. Some Tory colleagues were unreachable.

The peculiarity of being a populist leader lies in the profound nature of betrayal when one leaves their people in the lurch.

More than any other politician before him, Johnson's position at the helm had been solidified by his charisma, regardless of public sentiment about him.

While some of his supporters continue to emphasize his role in bringing Brexit to fruition, it's hard to forget that he had written two opinion articles both for and against Brexit as Foreign Secretary. Critics insist that his Brexit support now seems merely a whim.

Without an ideology, Johnson had essentially ascended to power as a socially liberal, tax-friendly Conservative, largely because it was a pragmatic approach. After assuming office, he oversaw the largest personal tax increase in decades, locked down millions of people for weeks, and proposed deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda -- actions that may not have stemmed from a genuine belief in principles, but which seemed politically advantageous in their direction.

But it was not political whims that convinced the Britons to abandon Johnson: it was something much more personal.

From the outset, a scandal involving a Downing Street party breaking lockdown regulations during the pandemic appeared minor in comparison to the serious challenges that Great Britain was facing. The Ukraine conflict, with its crippling cost of living, had become a formidable challenge, a test of our ability to eradicate inequality.

But the scandal became intimate and emotional as each voter was reminded of their personal losses in these unnerving and precarious times - losses readily compounded by the realization that power brokers in the center weren't nearly as unified as the people had believed.

Many were appalled to discover that the rule makers in government weren't at all in agreement, but had brazenly flouted regulations. Regular British citizens remembered missing funerals, struggling to navigate homeschooling, and losing their jobs during the Downing Street parties.

This fostered a resentment that went beyond disillusionment at Johnson's abandonment of policy or a policy shift. Perhaps as deeply as a friend or beloved family member leaving our side.

In 1989, a year before she was eventually ousted, Margaret Thatcher survived a trust vote with the advice that she should abandon her unpopular poll tax and adopt a more collegial approach with her team.

Theresa May managed to barely pass her own trust vote in 2018, with some believing that she would have survived if she had managed the chaos surrounding the Brexit process more effectively, guiding Britain calmly out of the EU.

Neither woman was willing or even capable of heeding this advice, and both were gone within twelve months.

In what message did the Conservative backbenchers send with their recent vote of no confidence in Johnson? What steps can he take to regain the office of Prime Minister? What guidelines should he follow? What adjustments should he consider?

Johnson has temporarily survived the vote. But the message from the crowd outside St. Paul's Cathedral was clear: the party was over and they were ready to move forward.