Pilot 22: Boris Johnson’s new vision for Brexit is Theresa May’s old vision for Brexit

Boris Johnson is the gift that keeps on taking. After being sidelined, he released his ‘new’ vision for Brexit in an enormous (thankfully gated) article in The Telegraph.

He repeated the bus sized mistruth of £350 million going back to the NHS. Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, called it a “clear misuse of stats”, surely the most boring burn ever delivered.

This was the Hard Brexit position laid out in 4000 words. No single market, no customs union, no transition period, no bill to pay.

All this was released just days before Theresa May was due to set out her updated Brexit vision in Florence (of all places). This is yet another classy move in a classy career. Absolutely everybody has received this as what it clearly is: a preparatory exercise for a future leadership bid. Again.

The FT shot down the article:

“Yet Mr Johnson’s contribution to the debate is at best facile, at worst dishonest. To quote his Daily Telegraph article, “this country will succeed in our new national enterprise, and will succeed mightily”. He wants to curtail foreign ownership of homes, but resolutely defended such deals when he was mayor of London. And he has repeated the false promise of an extra £350m for the National Health Service once Britain saves on its budget contributions to the EU.”

And Suzanne Moore pilloried his standing as a potential PM:

“Johnson was sacked by Michael Howard for lying. As a journalist he was known for “embroidering” stories. He was sacked from the Times for lying. Making up quotes.”

And then he pushed the £350 million lie — even if he didn’t make that one up himself. He is a liar who gets a pass because he’s entertaining. But wait, haven’t we already seen this cautionary tale?

Foreign Secretary blues

Johnson has had a pretty unremarkable run as Foreign Secretary. Brexit and international trade have both been handed to other departments, leaving Boris without a whole lot to do. He’s been ineffectual during the major crises of the last 6 months: the crisis in Qatar and the diplomatic break down with North Korea.

Away from Brexit, the only headlines he’s made in the last couple of years have been stupid but minor gaffes: upsetting Sikhs by discussing whisky trading opportunities, rugby tackling a Japanese child to the floor and publishing offensive poems about the President of Turkey four months before he was due to meet him.

He’s been starved for attention. After Michael Gove gave him the Brutus treatment, Boris has been plotting his return. This 4000 word Telegraph article was supposed to be his moment. But, sadly, everybody saw through it right away.

And then Theresa May delivered her own vision. It was not very well received.

Theresa May has decisively, coherently and confidently kicked the can another two years down the road. — Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) September 22, 2017

Shocked to hear that Theresa May, a politician admired for her barn-storming, game-changing speeches, has given an underwhelming speech — kadhim.,’ (＾ｰ^)ノ (@kadhimshubber) September 22, 2017

How the pound reacted to Theresa May’s Brexit speech in Florence https://t.co/Szr7gFOjuI pic.twitter.com/6lJr3fyTKd — Bloomberg Brexit (@Brexit) September 22, 2017

We’ll have a deeper breakdown on this in next week’s pod. The main takeaway is that May proposed a two year transition period, something that is inexplicably treated as surprising or optional. There is a repetitive element to the Brexit debate in Britain. The most obvious things are disputed, over and over, while the main substance of the talks are put off.

In the end, we had a week of posturing from Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Boris took up the mantle of May’s Hard Brexit speech from January — a position which, at this point, nobody can possibly believe he holds. Even if he were successful in convincing the hard Leave base of serious commitment to their cause, that base is the same one that delivered a minority government to Theresa May. Why bother?

As power grabs go, this was both cynical and short-sighted. Pretty stupid, even for Boris.

Be sure to subscribe to Connected & Disaffected on Soundcloud. You can also follow us on Twitter or on Facebook. Please recommend us to your politics nerd friends and/or like and share our posts!