It won’t be sleaze that brings down Johnson in the end. As written many times in the past, sadly that is ‘priced-in’. The clumsy ‘sex and favours’ story about Jennifer Arcuri, for example, in this weekend’s Observer was hardly a surprise and offered no new revelations.
But what will?
Essentially a combination of three things; the economy through a deterioration in living standards, a Labour revival, and a collapse in relations with his backbenchers.
Taking these in reverse order, the latter is well on its way to being fulfilled. The hanging out to dry of lemming like MPs (ex 51 of them) as they voted to re-write parliamentary standards rules and rescue Owen Paterson, only to be metaphorically slapped in the face as the government u-turned, has caused huge resentment. The finances of (mostly Tory) MPs are now being heavily scrutinised as criticism of second jobs in local and national media mounts. They are all being tarred with the same brush and several MPs I have spoken to are absolutely hopping mad. This needn’t have happened.
Johnson is not popular amongst fellow parliamentary colleagues. He is seen as chaotic and amoral. On spending, he is not even viewed as a Tory. He had better keep being seen by those colleagues as an election winner…
On the second issue, a Labour revival is probably as far away as ever. Yes, they have suddenly moved into an opinion poll lead, but the recovery is weak. The problems of ineffective leadership and lack of attractive, believable policies are still there and the threat of Labour offering a competitive challenge ahead of the next General Election still seems pretty unlikely.
So, lastly to the third ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ issue. The jury is out. It is too early to say. A hopefully post Covid recovery is still underway and there is plenty of talk of ‘levelling up’ backed by decent amounts of cash. But if reality in the North falls short of expectations, standards of living are undermined by inflation and tax rises and Brexit related shortages bite, then the public mood could change very quickly.
For Johnson personally lights are flashing amber. Only one of those three issues has crystallised. It will take at least two for him to be under real threat. He is still likely to lead the Tories into and win a 2023 General Election (if it is delayed until 2024 then it signals a lack of confidence of victory), but the odds have narrowed somewhat.
Johnson’s real problem is his backbenchers. For a man who ‘likes to be liked’ he has made himself very unpopular indeed and that is not going to change any time soon. The economy and Labour had better continue to ‘deliver’ in his favour…