Boris Will Continue to Appeal Only to Tory Membership at his Peril
- Liam John
- Jun 16, 2019
- 3 min read
Editorial: QualifiedPrivilege.
The phrase: “it’s Boris Johnson’s to lose.” has spread like wildfire amongst the political media when reporting on the Conservative party leadership contest.
As a political columnist himself, it’s fair to assume that Boris understands this terminology very well.
Whilst his opponents needlessly sabotage their own campaigns, like Dominic Raab’s mad notions of proroguing parliament or Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom’s bizarre drug-abuse confessions. Boris has stayed almost completely silent.
Johnson has reluctantly agreed to take part in the BBC debate, and turned-down Channel Four. Where he will be represented by an empty podium.
Conservative political strategist Sir Lynton Crosby – you may recall his name as his firm illegally paid for Brexit dark ads – who unofficially advises Boris is highly sceptical of televised debates.
Sir Lynton and David Cameron in 2015
Sir Lynton had previously tried to prevent David Cameron from doing the 2010 general election debate and was part of the team that advised Theresa May to avoid them altogether in the run-up to the 2017 general election.
I have to concede that making yourself answerable to the public will more than likely open you up to criticism. This could explain Boris’s absence.
And let’s face it when you’re Boris Johnson, it’s best to avoid cameras. See here, here, here and here.
In one of Johnson’s, now increasingly rare, statements he has vowed that we will be leaving the European Union on October 31st with or without a deal.
President of the EU Commission Jean-Claud Juncker has said: “Brussels will not renegotiate, regardless of who the Prime Minister is.”
So, any candidate saying they will Leave with a deal, that isn’t May’s Withdrawal Agreement, are more than likely misleading us about Brexit.
However, Boris has taken this deceit one step further, by making it clear that if he can’t renegotiate (which he can’t) he will Leave without a deal.
Unfortunately for Britain, that’s not Johnson’s only campaign pledge.
He has written in the Telegraph that he will cut the 40p tax-threshold from £50,000 to £80,000 per annum.
Out of the 26.5m workers in the United Kingdom, this will affect 3m.
He also talked about the benefits of a further reduction to corporation tax which is currently at 19%, compared with 31.5% in France and 29.8% in Germany.
UK corporation tax rates compared with the rest of the EU
Following the 2007-8 financial crisis the coalition government, of which Johnson was a part, introduced austerity measures intended to battle the recession.
Ten years later, the government have learned nothing and 8.4m working-age adults still live in poverty in the United Kingdom.
It’s a race to the bottom and it’s: “Boris Johnson’s to lose.”
If these tax breaks for the wealthiest workers, coupled with the pledged reduction to corporation tax, become policy it could, fairly accurately, be perceived as an assault on the British worker by a political class.
Our future Prime Minister’s motives in these cuts are, of course, to win over the largely upper-middle-class membership of the party, who will very shortly elect him as Prime Minister.
Johnson offering tax-cuts to the rich, while dragging Britain towards a No-Deal Brexit is as irresponsible as it is unnecessary.
However, it may deliver the fatal blow to an already shaky Conservative party.
Virtually every leadership candidate has misjudged the political climate in this leadership contest. So much so, there’s now a good chance of Labour winning the next general election.
Realistically they would reach a lot more ex-Tory voters, in the long run at least, by shifting centre and trying to address some of the mass inequalities they’ve caused in this country.
Rather than an irresponsible leap to the right to appeal to the Brexit party voter base who may or may not budge.
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