Boris Johnson’s pathological unreliability may end up being his only saving grace

Mr Johnson may be on his way to Downing Street – though he could implode with the force of a supernova at any moment – but he is not about to assume absolute power. Far from it

Thursday 13 June 2019 20:54 BST
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Rory Stewart says he will bring Boris Johnson down

Not so long ago the conventional political wisdom was that although the Tory grassroots found Boris Johnson irresistible, those who knew him best (politically) found his “magnetic personality” barely tolerable.

Conservative members of parliament, in other words, would presumably ensure that Mr Johnson never made it to the leadership contest final two, where he would be able to work his catnip routines on the activists. Therefore he could never become leader or prime minister.

That, however, was before multiple Brexit failures drove them mad with frustration. Refusing to countenance the possibility that Brexit was collapsing under the weight of its contradictions, and refusing to accept that Britain could not after all have its cake and eat it, they jettisoned the luckless Theresa May and opened up the leadership. Again.

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