Can Boris Johnson’s Charles de Gaulle act pay off?

It is only a month since Boris Johnson gave up his dramatic attempt to regain the Premiership he reluctantly surrendered in July. Already he is making headlines once more. 

In an interview with CNN a slimmed down and bubbly Boris caused a diplomatic rumpus by accusing France and Italy of going wobbly and claiming that Germany wanted to see Ukraine quickly defeated by Putin’s invasion last February (thereby less than subtlety suggesting that only the firm resolution of one Boris Johnson kept a wavering Europe on Kyiv’s side). 

For good measure, he dismissed claims that Brexit was a cause of our current economic woes as ‘nonsense’. When asked about the chances of him becoming prime minister again, Boris repeated the mantra he used to use before 2019 – that he was more likely to be decapitated by a frisbee than enter No 10 – before helpfully reminding us that he then actually did become PM.