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

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Connected to this is the notion that Johnson 'got the big calls right'. He constantly repeated this phrase, but did anyone actually buy it? His government had done well on the vaccine rollout and on responding to the Ukraine war, but (especially with the vaccines) it was pretty clear what needed to be done, and it was implementation that mattered rather than decision-making. Payne lives in Crouch End, North London. [8] He married Sophia Gaston on 20 July 2019 with the marriage ending in divorce in 2022. Gaston is a London School of Economics visiting fellow and Head of Foreign Policy and UK Resilience at the conservative think tank Policy Exchange. [24] [25] [26] Bibliography [ edit ] There were policy successes during the Johnson premiership, including the vaccine booster programmes and his robust support of Ukraine faced with Russian aggression, both thanks to the use of small expert teams. Johnson always acted in his own short-term interest. Every time a scandal blew up, his strategy was to just keep fighting until the next day. This allowed the narrative of a scandal-ridden government to gain momentum. If each scandal had been dealt with immediately, in a single swoop, then it would have been harder for such a narrative to dominate. In 2010, Sebastian volunteered for Conservative Campaign Headquarters during the 2010 General Election Campaign.

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.Payne joined the Financial Times as digital opinion editor [14] at the beginning of 2016. [5] He became the newspaper's political leader writer, [14] before being appointed Whitehall correspondent in March 2019. He wrote a fortnightly political opinion column [15] and presented the weekly Payne's Politics podcast. [16] With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson’s downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today. 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. Author: Sebastian Payne". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016 . Retrieved 8 December 2022. Of course with the best will in the political world this book on the fall of Boris Johnson comes too soon to justify its claim to be “the full story”. But it is a good interim account. Sebastian Payne is the Whitehall editor and columnist for the Financial Times and the author of Broken Heartlands, an excellent analysis of the loss of Labour seats in the North and Midlands. He was persuaded to write this book by his publishers and his sources are really based on 40 hours of interviews with cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, MPs and close confidants of the former prime minister. Sources are also taken from the internet and government publications.

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. This book points to the main reasons why Boris fell before he should have. There seems to be a finality to his tenure as soon as the book starts. I did find it very informative and it does give a good timeline of the scandals that but Boris. I think all the swearing could have been toned down though. Yes people swear but blimey...

With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson's downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today. Payne became a data reporter at The Daily Telegraph in 2011, before leaving the newspaper the following year. [10] He was an online editor of The Spectator magazine [11] and the deputy editor of its Coffee House blog from 2012 to 2015. [12] He was also managing editor of the magazine. [6] During his time at The Spectator he spent nine months in a Laurence Stern fellowship at the national desk of The Washington Post. [13] [6]

Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England (Pan Macmillan, 2021) ISBN 978-1529067361 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. Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops Amos-Sansam, Nate (11 March 2019). "Sebastian Payne appointed Whitehall correspondent at Financial Times". ResponseSource . Retrieved 20 October 2019.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. Originally from the North East himself, Payne sets out to uncover the real story behind the red wall and what turned these seats blue. Beginning in Blyth Valley in the North East and ending in Burnley, with visits to constituencies across the Midlands and Yorkshire along the way, Payne gets to the heart of a key political story of our time that will have ramifications for years to come. The Fall of Boris Johnson is the explosive inside account of how a prime minister lost his hold on power. From Sebastian Payne, Director of Onward and former Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times.

I loathe everything that Boris Johnson is and stands for. Bombastic, narcissistic, arrogant, convinced the rules only apply to others, self serving and utterly convinced he is right as well as being an opportunistic serial liar. It speaks a lot to the current state of political reality that someone like him, and Trump, were able to rise to the top of the power tree in their respective countries. Given that, it is unsurprising that I read this with a great deal of schadenfreude as well as interest in how events unfolded. Jeremy Corbyn with former Blyth Valley MP Ronnie Campbell at a 2017 election campaign event. Campbell lost his seat in 2019, having been Blyth’s MP for 32 years. Photograph: Scott Heppell/AFP/Getty Images Imagine another world in which neither of these two books could have been written. Jeremy Hunt becomes prime minister in 2019. He takes a moderated version of Brexit through the House of Commons without the need to seek another mandate. There is no general election in 2019 and therefore no acceleration of the Labour recovery. In May 2022 Hunt beats Jeremy Corbyn comfortably in a general election and, six months later, he looks on as his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivers the Autumn Statement. Across the dispatch box the fledgling leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, contemplates the years ahead.

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As I had appreciated from a 30000 ft height, there were a lot of issues that finally brought him down, but they all speak to his apparent belief that no rules applied to him and he could act with egregious self interest without suffering any consequences at all. It is fortunate that his party finally came to an end when his party finally had enough of this vile leader. However, I give them no credit since they were the most craven apologists for his shenanigans for far too long and really only decided to call time on him when it became clear he was an electoral liability rather than an asset. This mirrors the cravenness of GOP in regards to Trump although they still haven't broken with him in the US for the most part. A reasonable account of Johnson's fall, as told by a journalist/think tanker/hopeful MP. As a 'first draft of history', it works well as a blow-by-blow account of the events leading up to Johnson's resignation (the postscript, on the leadership election that followed, is weaker). The Fall of Boris Johnson is the explosive inside account of how a prime minister lost his hold on power. From Sebastian Payne, former Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times and author of Broken Heartlands. Are the Tories better off since Johnson resigned? No. The economy is terrible; their polling is far worse; Labour’s victory seems all but guaranteed. Brexit is questioned again. We have gone from tax cuts, under Truss, to tax rises, under Rishi - and all without the consolations of good humour.