One of the reasons Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour was so shocked by the scale of its defeat at the last election is because they just don’t understand Boris Johnson’s appeal. All of their pre-programmed, politically correct left-wing instincts told them that he is anathema to Labour voters. How could a womanising, right-wing Etonian appeal to decent working men and women? Unfortunately for Labour it was decent working men and women who won Johnson two remarkable, against the odds, victories: the EU referendum and an election landslide.
Nor was it only the Labour Party that misjudged Johnson. Tory grandees like John Major and Michael Heseltine paraded their haughty disdain and urged the Conservative faithful to reject him. Johnson proved them all wrong because, for all his flaws and privileged background, he connects with people in a way that wooden politicians like Corbyn and Major can only dream of.
The chattering class said we could not possibly leave the EU; Johnson sensed people beyond the M25 disagreed.
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