Three steps to learn from Trump and stop Johnson

In just one month’s time, we could find ourselves with Boris Johnson as this country’s new Prime Minister. Britain’s very own Donald Trump, complete with all the same flaws that make him completely unfit for office, will have finally achieved his lifelong ambition. There is no doubt that a Johnson premiership serving its full term would be a disaster for the UK, leading to a catastrophic No Deal Brexit, inflicting all the pain on the worst off, while his friends benefit from generous tax cuts. To avoid Johnson’s hard-right, populist agenda from ever getting off the ground, here are three steps the UK can learn from Trump’s time in office to defeat Johnson.

First, interrogate him seriously on his plans for the country and don’t let him get away with avoiding the question. Brexit is obviously a big part of this and it is essential that interviewers grill him relentlessly on how the fabled Article 24 of GATT would actually work and why the EU would ever agree to his plans (hint: they won’t). However, this is not just about Brexit. Johnson’s spending plans are a mess too - a random cocktail of spending pledges and tax cuts, the whole package essentially uncosted beyond a desire to raid the funds set aside for No Deal (which, of course, would leave nothing in the bank should they actually go for No Deal). And when it comes to his self-proclaimed attachment to One Nation Conservatism and unionism, how does Johnson possibly reconcile that with a willingness to pursue a No Deal Brexit that will be heavily opposed by at least two of the country’s four nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland? If Labour had put forward anything like these proposals the press would be alive with accusations of irresponsibility. The same standard should apply to Johnson.

When dealing with his responses to tough questions, the important thing is to not be phased by his bluster and to always bring him back to the question. Remember, his long-winded and overblown answers are not a demonstration of intelligence, they are more like a nervous tick, a reaction to being caught out without any of the required knowledge. Though he may draw a laugh the first time (in the hope that people will have forgotten the original point), a second or third push will quickly make it clear to everyone watching that he really does not have an answer.

Second, hit him on his policy record. Though Johnson talks a big game, in practice he has repeatedly broken promises, on everything from the third runway at Heathrow to preventing tube strikes or keeping fire stations open. Even his so-called achievements do very little to improve his reputation. Many were riddled with flaws, such as the infamously poorly designed new Routemaster London buses, while others, such as the Olympics, were in part successes thanks to the relatively minor involvement of Boris Johnson himself. Johnson’s time in office is a litany of failures - there is no excuse for allowing him to convince voters otherwise.

Third, don’t let him present himself as an outsider. Just like Trump, Johnson likes to pretend that he is an outsider to the system and therefore that he can better represent the average citizen. This is, of course, a pure fiction. Johnson is the undiluted product of the British elite. Born into wealth, the son of a former politician, sent to Eton and then on to Oxford, he has rarely so much as put a single toe outside of Britain’s upper class. If Trump could perhaps claim to have been an outsider to Republican party politics, Johnson, by contrast, has been an MP for 13 years, Mayor of London for 8 and deeply tied to the heart of the Conservative Party for decades.

The parting conclusion is this: always stay focused and grounded in concrete reality and look less to subjective views of his character. A potential Prime Minister’s character is naturally important, but defenders of Johnson should not be able to create the impression that attacks on his character are the result of a lack of substance to criticise, on the contrary, there is plenty. His past failures, his broken promises, his lack of attention to detail, his disinterest in hard work – all should be brought into the light from his first day in office to his last. This will be the quickest way to bring the most unfit Prime Minister in UK history to the final end of his career.