{"id":135839,"date":"2019-06-24T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=135839"},"modified":"2019-06-19T11:48:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:48:24","slug":"how-bungling-boris-bounced-back-from-his-2016-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/06\/how-bungling-boris-bounced-back-from-his-2016-setback\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018Bungling Boris\u2019 Bounced Back from His 2016 Setback"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a9 REUTERS\/Henry Nicholls<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Jun 201 – <\/em>Barring an earthquake, Boris Johnson will become Tory leader and Britain\u2019s new PM on July 22, if not before. It\u2019s all a far cry from 3 years ago, when his leadership campaign was over before it began. What\u2019s been the difference?<\/p>\n

We could, quite easily, have already been three years into a Boris Johnson premiership. The Latin-spouting blond-haired Old Etonian was hotly fancied in the race to succeed fellow Etonian David Cameron when the latter resigned following defeat in the EU referendum in 2016. Boris had been one of the leaders of the Leave campaign. The crown was surely his.<\/p>\n

Except it wasn\u2019t. Instead, the man he considered his trusty lieutenant, Michael Gove, delivered a killer blow by announcing his own leadership bid. \u201cI have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead,<\/em>\u201d Gove said.<\/p>\n

Read more: Tory leadership underdog Stewart credits Corbyn for surge in popularity, as liberal journos swoon <\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Humiliatingly, Johnson was forced to use the official launch of his campaign to announce that he would not be standing.<\/p>\n

As I wrote at the time, in just three hours \u2018BoJo\u2019 had gone from being co-favorite to being the next PM, to a man whose career looked to be in ruins.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the difference now? There are two main reasons for the Boris bounce back.<\/p>\n

First, Theresa May\u2019s inability to deliver Brexit. Second, Rupert Murdoch.<\/p>\n

Theresa May told us countless times that Britain would be leaving the EU on March 29, 2019. Well, actually someone did count the times she said it and it came to 108. And guess what? Britain didn\u2019t leave on March 29. We\u2019re still here.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to be a paid-up member of the Boris Johnson Appreciation Society to agree with him that the whole thing could have been handled better. The more the Maybot dithered, the more Johnson\u2019s stock grew.<\/p>\n

And crucially, his stock has grown with arguably the most important figure in British politics: Mr Murdoch. Love him or loathe him, Rupert Murdoch remains by any objective assessment, the Kingmaker.<\/p>\n

Labour had been out of power for a decade and a half before Tony Blair flew to the big News International conference Down Under to address Rupe\u2019s top executives. Blair sought to assure the Aussie media mogul that his \u2018New Labour\u2019 project would pose no threat to Murdoch\u2019s corporate interests, and would, in government, be very different from \u2018Old Labour\u2019. It worked. The Sun switched to backing Labour and the party enjoyed 13 years in power. It was only when the best-selling tabloid switched back to the Tories, in 2010, that Labour rule ended.<\/p>\n

Back to Boris. ITV\u2019s political editor Robert Peston, revealed in a tweet of June 30, 2016, that a day earlier, at a Times business summit, Mr Murdoch had expressed his doubts about Boris Johnson and had hoped Michael Gove would run.<\/p>\n

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Important: at Times biz summit yesterday @rupertmurdoch<\/a> said he had doubts about @BorisJohnson<\/a> & wished Gove would run<\/p>\n

— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 30, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n