The Fall of Boris Johnson: The Award-Winning, Explosive Account of the PM's Final Days

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Sunak and his allies played a part in Johnson’s downfall, but that should not be mistaken for swallowing the narrative – pushed by Team Boris – that his premiership only ended because of Sunak One peerage went to a junior aide, 29-year-old Charlotte Owen, who will become the youngest ever life peer to enter the second chamber. There were also eight other names on his peerages list that were rejected by the House of Lords appointments commission. They hint darkly that there is plenty of ammunition to use against Sunak. Most notably, Johnson’s memoirs are scheduled to come out next year – probably the next general election year. As one supporter observed, archly: “They’re coming along …” If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.

Given that only Johnson and Smith are likely to have been on the call, and that the remarks are in wider circulation because Boris described it to others, it is difficult to prove categorically what was said. Was the tone one of warning or threat? What is certainly true is that Johnson has since concluded it was the latter – that is, part of a plot against him – and told others as much.The downside of concentrating on the last few months of Johnson in office is that it minimises those qualities that propelled him into national politics and pulled off Brexit when the elite declared it impossible, making those who remained loyal to him to the bitter end look like fools. Yet Payne recently published another, very well received book on the Red Wall that adds vital context. Johnson was more than a man; he embodied a movement. Euroscepticism confounded its opponents because it managed to ally southern Thatcherites and northern socialists, and even if this confederacy seems bizarre on paper, it cohered through the personality of a witty patriot whose abiding concern was to make Britain feel better about itself. When I voted Conservative in 2019, it was more for Boris than for the Conservatives – and with his brand of populism out of the picture, I’m not sure I’ll do the same again. If you ask, “Why is Boris Johnson not still Prime Minister?” the only answer I can come up with is that there were these personal failings. I mean, how do you go from having an 80-seat majority to going in three years?!’ How indeed. The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the [then] prime minister, the most senior member of the government. There is no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House. He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public and he did so repeatedly.” the public nature of Sunak’s willingness to hold Boris at arm’s length was different from that of other future rivals

Certainly the downfall was exceptional, a head-scratching collapse. Johnson had won the biggest Tory majority in the House of Commons since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. Then, in less than three years, he had gone from top dog to mincemeat. So, just how much blame can be laid at Sunak’s door for Johnson’s descent? And was more happening behind the scenes than the public knew? Boris Johnson was touted as the saviour of the country and the Conservative Party, obtaining a huge commons majority and finally "getting Brexit done". But within three short years, he was deposed in disgrace, leaving the country in crisis. We have concluded … that in deliberately misleading the House Mr Johnson committed serious contempt,” the committee said. Boris Johnson was prone to believing in political conspiracies. Many friends and former advisers attest as much. One wild and unsubstantiated rumour he voiced was that Sunak’s father-in-law, Indian billionaire Narayana Murthy, had Dominic Cummings on a retainer. There is no suggestion it was accurate. Yet ‘Boris believed it to be true’, said the senior Johnson Cabinet minister who relayed the story. The catalogue of horrors overseen by him and his regime are well documented here: trying to change the rules of ministerial conduct for Owen Paterson who was unapologetic in his flouting of them for personal gain, the "partygate" scandals where he and others gleefully broke the COVID rules that they had put in place then repeatedly lied about them to the apparent final straw for his party when he again lied about and sought to protect Chris Pincher ("Pincher by name, pincher by nature" apparently falling from his lips as he joked about this serial sex predator). The fact that it took so long for enough to be enough is appalling, as is the fact that the most odious and fawning apologists for him (Jacob Rees-Mogg et al) never got there at all.

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Boris Johnson got me into paying more attention to politics when he became Prime Minister in 2019. He uncovered my hidden Conservative views and made me want to learn more about the Party, and it's history. I've always thought he had a charisma about him from when I saw him on Have I Got News For You.