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| Boris Johnson's gilded reputation may be about to lose its shine | Boris Johnson's gilded reputation may be about to lose its shine |
| (6 months later) | |
| 'This programme was such a bad idea!" cries a beaming Boris Johnson with only the faintest attempt at mock horror. But as he must surely know, Monday night's BBC2 documentary on his "irresistible rise" could hardly be a better platform for our wannabe prime minister than if he had produced it himself. | 'This programme was such a bad idea!" cries a beaming Boris Johnson with only the faintest attempt at mock horror. But as he must surely know, Monday night's BBC2 documentary on his "irresistible rise" could hardly be a better platform for our wannabe prime minister than if he had produced it himself. |
| It isn't far into the hour-long film before you start to imagine Theresa May stomping those famous kitten heels of hers in furious despair. Will she and the other potential successors to David Cameron now be awarded the same TV treatment? Not likely! So how can the poor woman – or indeed the Goves, Foxes and Osbornes – hope to compete against Johnson for the Tory leadership when the time comes? | It isn't far into the hour-long film before you start to imagine Theresa May stomping those famous kitten heels of hers in furious despair. Will she and the other potential successors to David Cameron now be awarded the same TV treatment? Not likely! So how can the poor woman – or indeed the Goves, Foxes and Osbornes – hope to compete against Johnson for the Tory leadership when the time comes? |
| Especially once the nation has watched video footage of a five-year-old Boris with soft doughy thighs negotiating a rubber boat down a river. And heard from his mum Charlotte about how he was a "champion" from birth. And listened to a school fellow describe him as not "only one of the great characters of Eton, but one of the great characters of Eton history". Father Stanley and sister Rachel Johnson have long acted as cheerleaders-in-chief for Boris, but the fact that this time the publicity-averse Charlotte has also been drafted in suggests a new urgency in the message. | Especially once the nation has watched video footage of a five-year-old Boris with soft doughy thighs negotiating a rubber boat down a river. And heard from his mum Charlotte about how he was a "champion" from birth. And listened to a school fellow describe him as not "only one of the great characters of Eton, but one of the great characters of Eton history". Father Stanley and sister Rachel Johnson have long acted as cheerleaders-in-chief for Boris, but the fact that this time the publicity-averse Charlotte has also been drafted in suggests a new urgency in the message. |
| It is left to Stanley, though, to make clear what it is. Boris, Stanley tells us in serious tones, has done so well as London mayor he should now "go" for the Tory leadership. "Don't tell me we can't get over" any "mechanical" problems like having to be an MP first, he says blithely. "We either change the rules" or "we'll find a way of making him a member of parliament" at the 2015 general election. | It is left to Stanley, though, to make clear what it is. Boris, Stanley tells us in serious tones, has done so well as London mayor he should now "go" for the Tory leadership. "Don't tell me we can't get over" any "mechanical" problems like having to be an MP first, he says blithely. "We either change the rules" or "we'll find a way of making him a member of parliament" at the 2015 general election. |
| Ah yes, what we have long suspected. But what of those repeated pledges not to go for a Westminster seat until he leaves City Hall in 2016? And when would that leadership bid be? We are not told the answers. But there seems little doubt we are being softened up for Johnson's next big move in his irresistible rise. His jokey admission that he would like a "crack" at being prime minister bears all the signs of being part of the same well-crafted narrative. | Ah yes, what we have long suspected. But what of those repeated pledges not to go for a Westminster seat until he leaves City Hall in 2016? And when would that leadership bid be? We are not told the answers. But there seems little doubt we are being softened up for Johnson's next big move in his irresistible rise. His jokey admission that he would like a "crack" at being prime minister bears all the signs of being part of the same well-crafted narrative. |
| But these are dangerous times for Johnson: full of possibility but also bear-traps. Strike too soon for a Commons seat, and it could be difficult to shed the "opportunistic" tag. Wait too long, and the train will leave without him. | But these are dangerous times for Johnson: full of possibility but also bear-traps. Strike too soon for a Commons seat, and it could be difficult to shed the "opportunistic" tag. Wait too long, and the train will leave without him. |
| Some of his rivals are already on manoeuvres in Westminster, most notably the home secretary. Boris-watchers detected a slight note of pique – and even perhaps hypocrisy – when he appeared to take aim at her the other day, declaring: "If ministers are setting out their stall now … they should save their breath and cool their porridge." It was an even more curious comment considering Ken Clarke instructed Johnson to stop plotting and "treading the boards" only six months ago. | Some of his rivals are already on manoeuvres in Westminster, most notably the home secretary. Boris-watchers detected a slight note of pique – and even perhaps hypocrisy – when he appeared to take aim at her the other day, declaring: "If ministers are setting out their stall now … they should save their breath and cool their porridge." It was an even more curious comment considering Ken Clarke instructed Johnson to stop plotting and "treading the boards" only six months ago. |
| Yet there are other reasons for Johnson to want to "get on with it" – not least the danger that his gilded reputation, which has won him two victories in London, may be about to lose its shine. A recent public meeting in Catford, south-east London, saw an embattled mayor branded a "coward" for failing to stand up for a hospital facing closure. Looking uncharacteristically uneasy, he endured a barrage of heckling and boos from the crowd over other subjects too, from police and fire cuts to wasting public money on vanity projects like his underused cable car. There is always a moment when a politician's actions (or lack of them) finally catch up with him, and this was the first major indication Johnson's may not be far off. | Yet there are other reasons for Johnson to want to "get on with it" – not least the danger that his gilded reputation, which has won him two victories in London, may be about to lose its shine. A recent public meeting in Catford, south-east London, saw an embattled mayor branded a "coward" for failing to stand up for a hospital facing closure. Looking uncharacteristically uneasy, he endured a barrage of heckling and boos from the crowd over other subjects too, from police and fire cuts to wasting public money on vanity projects like his underused cable car. There is always a moment when a politician's actions (or lack of them) finally catch up with him, and this was the first major indication Johnson's may not be far off. |
| Indeed, the weekend has been uncharacteristically uncomfortable for him. On Saturday, Leyton Orient football fans marked their disgust at his use of £45m of taxpayers' funds to subsidise rival West Ham's move into the Olympic stadium with chants of "Boris Johnson is a wanker". Sunday saw him receive his first tough grilling by a national broadcaster when Eddie Mair pushed him on making up quotes in the Times, apparently agreeing to help his friend Darius Guppy beat up a journalist and lying to Michael Howard about an affair. "You're a nasty piece of work," suggested Mair on the Andrew Marr show. Johnson squirmed and blustered – this was not the fawning he has come to expect. | Indeed, the weekend has been uncharacteristically uncomfortable for him. On Saturday, Leyton Orient football fans marked their disgust at his use of £45m of taxpayers' funds to subsidise rival West Ham's move into the Olympic stadium with chants of "Boris Johnson is a wanker". Sunday saw him receive his first tough grilling by a national broadcaster when Eddie Mair pushed him on making up quotes in the Times, apparently agreeing to help his friend Darius Guppy beat up a journalist and lying to Michael Howard about an affair. "You're a nasty piece of work," suggested Mair on the Andrew Marr show. Johnson squirmed and blustered – this was not the fawning he has come to expect. |
| Johnson's mayoralty to date has been long on showbiz and light on concrete achievement, as more Londoners are noticing. Yet, as he edges ever closer to real power, Johnson still has had most of the media in thrall to him not least because he invariably makes such entertaining copy. | Johnson's mayoralty to date has been long on showbiz and light on concrete achievement, as more Londoners are noticing. Yet, as he edges ever closer to real power, Johnson still has had most of the media in thrall to him not least because he invariably makes such entertaining copy. |
| There are voices of dissent – including Johnson's former editor Sir Max Hastings, once his patron but now firmly in the detractors' camp, who again expresses concerns in the BBC film. They have been curiously muted until now; but maybe just maybe that is about to change. | There are voices of dissent – including Johnson's former editor Sir Max Hastings, once his patron but now firmly in the detractors' camp, who again expresses concerns in the BBC film. They have been curiously muted until now; but maybe just maybe that is about to change. |
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