Boris Johnson needs an alternative vision for Britain

In the run up to December’s election, many on the Left and in the media sought to present Boris Johnson as a ‘Far Right’ politician.

His support for Brexit was the foundation stone of this absurd mischaracterisation, built on fragments of his quotes ripped from their wider settings in old newspaper columns he had written and his passing physical resemblance to Donald Trump.

In his dogged pursuit of the mainstream cause of Brexit, the PM retains a capacity to do things that turn the modern British establishment into a rolling Bateman cartoon. But as he has shown by his choices on economic issues, such as public spending, and social ones, such as the level of future immigration from Hong Kong, Boris is no natural right-winger.

When a PM’s views on most matters sit him somewhere in the middle of public opinion – what Sir Keith Joseph termed ‘the common ground’ – this is all well and good.