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Boris Johnson reached the top but was felled by his flaws
Boris Johnson wanted to be like his hero Winston Churchill: a larger-than-life character who led Britain through a time of crisis.
International
LONDON – Boris Johnson wanted to be like his hero Winston Churchill: a larger-than-life character who led Britain through a time of crisis. He was felled by crises of his own making, as a trickle of ethics allegations became a flood that engulfed his government and turned his own party against him.
Johnson agreed to resign Thursday after the chorus of disapproval from within his own party became too much for him to withstand.
The move came after months of scandal that saw Johnson fined by police and criticized by an investigator’s report for allowing rule-breaking parties in his office while Britain was in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson urged his party and country to “move on” and focus on the U.K.’s struggling economy and the war in Ukraine. But two thumping special election defeats for Johnson's Conservative Party and allegations of sexual misconduct against a senior party official sealed the fate of a politician whose ability to survive scandals was legendary.
Johnson’s career was always one of extremes. He took Britain out of the European Union and led the nation during a global health crisis that endangered his own life, but was toppled after flouting restrictions he imposed in response to COVID-19. Revelations of parties in Johnson’s Downing Street office while the country was in lockdown in 2020 and 2021 caused outrage and tested the patience of the Conservative Party for its election-winning but erratic leader.
An investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray criticized “failures of leadership and judgment” in Johnson’s government for allowing multiple rule-breaking gatherings in 2020 and 2021. Dozens of people were issued police fines, including the prime minister, his wife Carrie Johnson and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak.
It was, seemingly, the final blow to the career of one of the most divisive politicians Britain has ever known. A sympathetic biographer, Andrew Gimson, called Johnson “the man who takes on the Establishment and wins.” But for former member of Parliament Rory Stewart, who ran unsuccessfully against Johnson for the Conservative leadership in 2019, he was “probably the best liar we’ve ever had as prime minister.”