As the cameras burped and clicked, as an aggravated nation watched, Boris Johnson announced that he was giving up. ‘Let us seize this chance and make this our moment to stand tall in the world,’ he said. ‘That is the agenda of the next Prime Minister of this country. Well, I must tell you, my friends, you who have waited faithfully for the punchline of this speech, that, having consulted with colleagues and in view of the circumstances in Parliament, I have concluded that person cannot be me.’
That was June 2016, you’ll remember. Johnson’s abrupt volte-face was a jaw-dropping moment; nobody saw it coming. The press conference was supposed to be a formal declaration that he was running. That made it classic Boris: he simply refuses to do what people expect. That’s why, in spite of everything and everyone, he might now cling on.
Yesterday wasn’t the ‘et tu Rishi’ moment the political class so desperately wanted it to be
Who says that Boris has to go? Almost all the media, that is certain – quite a lot of the exhausted public, too.
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