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Happening Today- How Boris handles Brexit will be interesting!
LONDON —Boris Johnson awoke Wednesday to a pile of British newspapers on his doorstep announcing his victory — some celebratory, some not. The Metro tabloid went with “Don’t Panic!” as an all-caps headline. The Express front page read, “Hang Onto Your Hats. Here Comes Boris!”
The transition of power of Britain is lightening quick. The United Kingdom is not without a premier for more than an hour. The outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May will curtsy to the Queen Wednesday afternoon and resign. Johnson will bow and be asked to form a new government.
When Johnson walks through the black enameled door of 10 Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon, he will fulfill what his biographers describe as his relentless “blond ambition” to follow his hero, Winston Churchill, into Britain’s top job.
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He will immediately face the buzz saw of Brexit. And although his supporters hope the charismatic Johnson will rally a divided Parliament and a divided country in a way that Theresa May failed to do, he comes into office as a controversial leader, not especially well-liked by most Brits.
Johnson — a bombastic, Latin-quoting Oxford classicist with a mop of intentionally mussed yellow hair — made his name as an
over-the-top journalist and a
colorful London mayor. He then galvanized the successful Brexit campaign in 2016, which won him many fans and many enemies.
Fleet Street was in a tizzy Wednesday over possible picks for his top team — including the “great offices of state” — the chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary — and what they could mean for Brexit and his style of governing. Johnson has just 99 days to find a Brexit solution. Otherwise, he has warned that Britain might accept the economic risk of leaving the bloc without a withdrawal agreement or transition period.
Will Johnson lean towards compromise? Or tilt towards a ‘no deal’ Brexit? The line-up of his top team could also signal whether he intends to govern, as he suggested on the campaign trail,like he did as mayor of London, where he was known as a liberal Conservative.
© Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May announced in May that she would step down as soon as a new conservative leader was chosen. The day of transition will begin when, for the last time, May will take part in Prime Minister’s Questions, a weekly question-and-answer session that is often something akin to gladiatorial combat for politicians.
But since this is May’s final PMQs, as it’s commonly called, expect more joviality and less verbal sparring than normal. There may be cheers — and some jeers.
From there, the transition of power speeds along. May will travel to Buckingham Palace — probably under the watchful eye of hovering media helicopters — where she will tender her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II and recommend Johnson as the person who can command the confidence of the House of Commons.
After May’s car leaves the palace, one carrying Johnson will arrive for a ceremony known as “kissing hands.”
In the movie “The Queen,” starring Helen Mirren, the actor playing Tony Blair kissed the hand of the monarch, but in reality, there’s more likely to be shaking hands. Theresa May shook hands and curtseyed —
deeply — during her meeting with the queen when she became prime minister.
© Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband, Philip, stand outside 10 Downing Street on July 13, 2016. Johnson will be the queen’s 14th prime minister. Over the course of her long reign, Elizabeth II has seen them come and go: Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and now Johnson.
Much attention today will focus on his remarks after he leaves the palace. The first speech a prime minister delivers is heavily scrutinized and often long remembered.
For her
first speech as prime minister, May talked of tackling “burning injustices” in society and leading a government that worked for everyone, not the “privileged few.” Those promises for a Tory-led “social justice” program were often thrown back in her face, when May mostly failed to address those issues. She was consumed with Brexit. The same could happen to her successor.
Matt Hancock, a Conservative politician who has been helping with Johnson’s campaign, told the BBC he expected Johnson’s speech to include “a surprising amount of detail, especially on the domestic agenda.” He said that, at the same time as delivering Brexit, Johnson wanted to focus on domestic issues and pointed out that on the campaign trail Johnson spoke about education, social care and policing.
Once prime minister, Johnson is expected to start naming his new team and new cabinet. Johnson has said he wants a cabinet rich with pro-Brexit voices — with each chair filled by someone who is okay with the incoming prime minister’s vow, that if he does not get the Brexit deal he wants from Europe, then Britain will crash out with no deal.
Johnson handily won the leadership contest on Tuesday. The former foreign secretary Johnson captured 92,153 votes to current foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt’s 46,656 — a decisive victory.
© Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images New Conservative Party leader and incoming prime minister Boris Johnsonleaves his campaign office in central London on Tuesday. But the vote involved only dues-paying members of the Conservative Party. A mere 139,000 people cast ballots in a country of 66 million. A lot of Britons feel left out at a pivotal moment. On social media, #NotMyPM was one of the many Johnson-related hashtags trending. A
YouGov survey found that 58 percent of Brits have a negative opinion of Johnson — a wicked-high number for a first day on the job.
The 55-year-old Johnson will take up residence at Downing Street. His 31-year-old girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, a former Conservative Party communications official and a top Tory spinner, may move in over the weekend, according to
British news reports. Expect a lot of tabloid interest in this unprecedented arrangement.
When Johnson clocks in, he will face an overflowing in-tray of items that need urgent attention, including a showdown in the Persian Gulf with a belligerent Iran. The two countries have been in a tense standoff since Britain impounded an Iranian tanker suspected of sending oil to Syria, and Iran retaliated by seizing a British-flagged oil tanker last week.
Politics watchers are keen to see whether Johnson continues Britain’s effort to salvage the 2015 deal designed to discourage Iran from developing nuclear weapons, or whether he bends to U.S. pressure to impose sanctions on Iran.
But Johnson’s main challenge will be getting Britain out of the European Union.
May’s failure to deliver Brexit on time was the reason her Tory lawmakers ousted her.
william.booth@washpost.com
karla.adam@washpost.com
Theresa May to step down, Boris Johnson to become U.K. prime minister, in ceremonial transition of power
