Can Boris Johnson deliver Brexit and keep the United Kingdom together? | Four Corners

yeah good morning George an earthquake indeed and similarly similarities with President Trump Johnson once said this my chances have been Pro mister are about as good as a chances defining Elvis on Mars just now he's been chosen to be the next leader of his party and their board prime minister who's a hugely controversial and divisive bigger brilliant what I even think of that the words Prime Minister Boris Johnson the same sentence just incredible Boris Johnson is the guy who was created in large part the damage in the division that somehow in the madness of our politics has made him Prime Minister the idea this guy can unite the country forget it it's not gonna happen [Music] I'm delighted to say that there are increasing exports of British kettle crisps to Russia we export French knickers to France the blonde bombshell Boris Johnson is finally at the address he always thought he should be here at number 10 but getting here has been the easy bit now he's got something really difficult to achieve and that's brexit it's a baby and part of his own making but it'sa a balling problematic child of three years but has got to be put to bed and if he can't do that he'll be out the gate just like his two predecessors [Music] on a boiling London summer's day a powerful sense of destiny was about to be fulfilled for a man who has long coveted the UK's top Jonghyun and therefore I give notice that Boris Johnson is elected as the leader of the conservative Britain's 77th Prime Minister was elected not by the people but just nought point one three percent of the population all members of the Conservative Party energize the country we're gonna get breaks it done on October 30 was gonna take advantage of all the opportunities that it will bring in a new spirit of can-do he wants to be a great British prime minister and the only way he can be a great British prime minister is to take us successfully out of the European Union if we were to fail to leave the EU because we fail to try and it will obliterate the Conservative Party and destroy trust in the greatest governing party probably in the world and it will be over for us the first is to restore trust in our democracy and fulfill the repeated promises of Parliament to the people by coming out of the European Union and doing so on [Applause] [Music] after three frustrating years brexit ears appear finally to have found their hero even his pro leave competitors in the Brixton party grudgingly accept that he sort of has their support well obviously we wish him well and let's hope he gets us out of the European Union by the 31st of October frankly if we don't it's the end of the Conservative Party it's the end of his permission has he got the character to do what he says he's going to do really good question it's about courage it's about leadership and who knows as I say we wish him well we will support him in those endeavors but we will hold him to account he has to deliver for Britain he has to deliver for democracy and for the seventeen point four million people who voted for brexit Boris Johnson is loved and loathed in equal mission and often a bit of both his rise to the top provokes joy outrage bewilderment euphoria and despair but rarely indifference I think no one would dispute that he's charismatic he's eloquent the big question has always been how much of the kind of bumbling persona is an act and how much of it is genuinely chaotic when you talk to people who work for him they say well some of it is put on some of it is this kind of Englishman you know wandering around not really knowing what's happening getting into trouble but some of it is genuinely like a lack of discipline and lack of planning and forethought I think that's I mean it's frustrated civil servants who worked with him in government before Boris Johnson grew up with politics part of the family business his father was once a Conservative MP his brother Joe is one now as a boy his sister recalls little Boris wanted to be king of the world as a very small child he wanted to be world king he's always been tremendously ambitious I think he learned this from his family which was a very competitive family so at dinner times his father Stanley would organize you know competitions of all kinds including I think blondeness competitions to see which job was the blondest and I think that that that that atmosphere seems to have produced four very competitive ambitious hard-working driven children his was a privileged life Eton and Oxford and the infamous Bullington drinking Club where he and his posh mates created a drunken trail of destruction [Music] from the first moment I met him at Oxford in 1983 it was clear that he had this over weaning ambition lots of people were as ambitious as him but you felt when you met him and when you talked to him and when he saw him at the despatch-box of the Oxford Union that unlike 99% of our contemporaries he might actually make it at Eton he told someone else that he wanted to be President to the United States so by the time he got to Oxford you know he only you know much more modestly wanted to be merely Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but you did feel it was within his grasp it wasn't completely it wasn't a completely ludicrous ambition he had the ability the force of personality the determination to get there Johnson's first steps on the public stage came not as a politician but as a journalist reporting from Brussels Alastair Campbell was communications director for Tony Blair and remembers Boris Johnson working as a journalist in Europe look I'm not saying he doesn't have certain strengths he does he does have a certain form of charisma he is very funny is very sharp he is good with the one-liner he quickly gained a reputation as a man with a rocky relationship with the truth he once told his readers the EU bureaucracy was demanding straight bananas when he was journalist he he really made his name out of writing stories that he and everybody else knew were invented he got a sack for lying by the times when I was working in Downing Street particularly we went to European summits in Brussels and he was working for the Telegraph in Brussels he would come along to my briefings and he was like he was literally for most of the European press corps a kind of he was like a comic character he was this kind of British comedy comedy character kind of blond mr. bean flying around the place there are many aspects to his character you know people who hate him they love to run that he's an incompetent and a bumbling and so on people who love him run a different narrative he's what in the UK they call a Marmite we might call that Vegemite politician some love him some hate him Alexander Downer was Australia's High Commissioner in London until last year he first met Johnson in 2005 when Donna was Australia's foreign minister and Johnson was the editor of the conservative Spectator magazine I found him and I still find him very very clever very clever it has a huge intellect he's pretty tough and ruthless but in public express and actually in private is very charming he has something else which is not very fashionable these days and that is he has a great sense of humor he's very funny and sometimes he's politically incorrect Costas enrages some people and fancier senior politicians saying something that's funny however average voters the everyday people of Britain they can relate to that Boris has had a fairly colorful private life and occasionally it has bit him in the bomb he's proved to be fairly bulletproof scandals that would normally have felled other politician don't appear to have done any lasting damage to Boris Boris Johnson is with me now well mr. Johnson first of all Boris Johnson parlayed his media career into a safe conservative seat in Parliament but after seven scandal-plagued years he successfully ran for mayor of London Boris Johnson thanks very much indeed Boris was rare as a politician that in our mayoral campaign he had a positive honesty rating no politicians have positive honesty ratings Boris tea [Applause] [Music] [Applause] James McGraw worked on the campaign that propelled Boris Johnson into the meril t despite or perhaps partly because of his unique personality he held that position for eight years he was the only Conservative candidate who's ever won the mayoral T of London beating a Labour incumbent in 2008 he won re-election in London in London is traditionally a Labour stronghold they loved him because they can relate to him and this is fascinating a lot of politicians we would walk along the street and I wouldn't know who we are for a good thing they don't know who we are Boris though I know that guy that's Boris and I'll go up and speak to him [Applause] there's that familiarity they want to own him and that's very important for a politician to be owned by the people he is owned by the people and they've invested in him Boris Johnson has long claimed Australia as a nation close to his heart he spent a year teaching English and Latin at Jalan grammars timber top campus and the london-based Australia Day foundation dubbed him honorary Australian of the Year in recognition for his support for visa-free travel between the two countries well I really don't know it's obviously something that I'm very proud of but also a bit baffled by I think it might be to do with the fact that I am the mayor of the 12 biggest Australian city on earth you're a huge dynamic Australian community here in London they contributed a great deal to the sea what I know about Boris is he loves Australia he talks about Australia all the time he has his affinity with his Ryan he likes our sense of humor he likes the fact were quiet earthy and he likes the fact of ever our general optimism and and he's an optimistic person he doesn't surround himself with a bunch of life-sucking Dementors he surrounds himself with people who want to go on and get the job done a street southerly get I'll get a free in 2015 I spoke to that then Mir Mayor of London as he campaigned to win back a seat in the House of Commons Boris Johnson I think Australians are aware of you your image the zip wire the the falling in the creek the sort of the zany side of you but what about the the substance the policy substance the guts that drives you what can you tell Australians about you well I think that I was I was very honored to be honoring Australian of the Year I think it was last year or the year before and I think that followed from obviously maybe from the Olympics but also from some things perhaps that I said about Australia which is I think the Australian values which are I think of a kind of positive energy certain sort of rugged can-do spirit that i iose maybe maybe you know idealistic leave I associate with Australia I think that is what we need in this country everyone I talk to says one day at least you can have a crack at Prime Minister it's some stage in the future well I think I will be I'll be a pretty decrepit old man by the time David Cameron relinquishes the reins office and there'll be all sorts of young thrusters perhaps some of them getting their say their selfies with us today we'll be putting their names forward well you're a great fan of Churchill of course really talk recently about it in one of those passages you described or I think it was describing somebody else's description of him as all sizzle not much sausage can that accusation be leveled at you no I think I think I think that's the sausage factor is almost well me at the same time Boris Johnson with disavowing high ambition this man was making his pitch for power all too obvious Boris Johnson says the best way to deal with you in your party is ignore you by he contrived he wants to but there's a lot of people out there who aren't ignoring us anew and who intend to vote for us as then leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farraj was eating into the conservative vote by promising to pull Britain out of the EU I am optimistic I am upbeat I am bullish we are going to exceed all expectations then in 2016 that then Prime Minister David Cameron took a huge gamble hold the referendum on brexit and hopefully kill it and you Kip once and for all one of the enduring criticisms of Boris is that he is more self-seeking than most politicians and unencumbered by principle to an even greater degree than the average poll and the example people give is the fact that he wrote two columns before making up his mind about whether to throw his lot with the leave campaign or stick with David Cameron in the campaign for brexit Boris Johnson found a career-making opportunity to go he abandoned David Cameron and joined the leave campaign but after a great deal of heartache I don't think there's anything else I can do I will be advocating that leave or whatever the team is called the choice that faced him politically was either to be a loyal member of the Cameron remain machine and he's not by nature he's not one of life's sort of subservient cog like figures who just sort of revolves in whatever way he's told to so that was a pretty unappealing prospect or to do this of of the Maverick The Outsider thing up turning the applecart and he'll Optive but i think i think you genuinely torn and of course no touristy wrote two articles one in favor of remaining in the european union and one in favor of leaving and then plum plum for leave boris johnson became the face of brixon now they've won the argument did you hear today they said that they've won do you think we believe in this country what do you do sheep yes we do he was the most obvious invisible leader of the vote leave campaign the brilliance of the vote leave campaign though if i can be slightly cynical about it was that it it set out an optimistic account of how britain would be better after brexit and lots of the issues that were on people's minds and troubling them about their political establishment and what was wrong with the world would be fixed by brexit but it was carefully rather vague on what the post brexit destination would be and that has bedeviled us for the last two or three years if it hadn't been for Boris Johnson and his campaigning skills remain could have what won the referendum in 2016 and that's what a lot of Ramona's think so here's a particular hate figure for them and hit then though so they characterize him as far-right and extremists of course you know the word that's always used to describe anybody who deeply disagrees with you racist all the ists come out well good morning everybody and it is one of them see this new team assembled here reflecting I think the depth and breadth of talent in our extraordinary party and as you all know we have a momentous task ahead of us Johnson's first act as Prime Minister was to purge his cabinet of brexit skeptics thank you it's just a pointer to camera who are much more in his image and he's purged let's be honest an awful lot of people who were not in his image and not on his agenda and he said at the outset unless you are prepared ultimately to back preparedness to go to No Deal you can't serve in my cabinet Britain is now due to lead the European Union on October the 31st Boris Johnson has vowed that unless he can get a better deal from the EU Britain will crash out that No Deal option would mean all agreements on transport communications migration just about everything would suddenly cease to exist [Music] if you take an economic change on the scale of this that is to say cutting yourself off from your largest market virtually overnight in the sense of no deal and not knowing what the rules are or what the final status is gonna be that will impact on people's jobs and livelihoods in the short to medium term we might ban with my well bounce back for that in fact we will bounce back from that we will find a way of adjusting but in that short to medium term a lot of lives and livelihoods will be profoundly disrupted I don't think he can do no bracer I don't think it's possible I've felt ever since the referendum I have felt that brexit will end up either destroying itself or destroying the country and I believe that I still believe that [Music] I've lived in worked in this country for years but I've never seen it so divided brexit has driven a wedge through politics regions and even families [Music] in a beautiful chills furred countryside just north of London grain and livestock farmer Christie Willett is checking the use walk on good girl away to me [Music] she voted to leave the EU back in 2016 [Music] why did I go to leave I felt that the system was broken I could see that the the EU was taking an awful lot of our money and we were getting very little back in return I felt that there was a good chance that we could be better off as a nation not necessarily as bombers but we could be better off as a nation if we came out Christi's husband Charlie will it looks after the nursery business he's an ardent remainer I've only remained from a human aspect because I think in these days where the world is shrinking we should work together more we should be more integrated and have more to do with other people and we shouldn't be bringing out the drawbridge which is what I felt for X it was doing Kristi's sister and Wheaton and her husband Bill are also bricks or tears this extended family has never had the brexit conversation all together until now well I thought that united we stand and divided we fall and having been brought up during the war I thought Germany is a very dominant force in the world and I just thought it would be better if we made our own way because I think they're corrupt and I think there's a lot of corruption in there it's a bureaucratic nightmare and they never sign their accounts or how can you do that the ones behind it and not are they to do it's just a big gravy train and I think we'd be better off short the big tray gravy train apart from all four all of the member states that are in there 28 apart from say the Balkans because that was the most recent conflict well it has been peace in Europe for was it now 70 no no but I mean we haven't had to live through a conflict where everyone's been involved the people lost lives and had a major effect on everyone kept the peace it's kept the peace and that's what it was designed to do and it's done that job it's not perfect but it has done the one thing it was supposed to do it wasn't there for pieces for trade one issue it's got people talking all the time about how people are fed up with it but they're still talking about it because it just goes on and on and he's the man to fix it well he's been pretty impressive this week I'm saying like a breath of fresh air [Music] for many farming communities even those who voted leave there will be a real financial loss because of brexit there are very few certainties in farming anywhere in the world but at least here in Britain and the rest of the EU there are the EU subsidies and they make up a huge percentage in some cases a farmers incomes it gives a level playing field to everyone at least they have some income even in the bad years but what happens when Boris Johnson's No Deal brexit actually hits well presumably all those subsidies suddenly dry out British taxpayers go to pick up that bill the problem with all of this is no one actually has hard fast answers and no one knows where the brexit exit really is [Music] four hours northeast of London the district of Boston is the salad bowl of England [Music] in Boston 75% of people voted to leave the EU the highest percentage in the land it was a reaction to the sudden influx from 2004 of immigrant farmworkers who came to do the jobs the English didn't want to do [Music] this town voted overwhelmingly to leave why do you think that's the case because we're racist yeah I know I've got a lot of know a lot of racist people in town and just like yeah that like the foreigners get rid of him west streets taking up this all foreign shops everywhere you won't want to walk down they ever know I'm on your app there's no you - yeah yeah well it's called murder capital of the contrary now because that many stabbings fighting you know if it's through drink-related I mean where I live around the corner they're just just sitting there drinking and doing whatever they've got no respect for the country what's there [Music] Matthew nailer employs many immigrant workers on his flower farm in this area where we grow lots of flowers vegetables salad crops we need lots of people to do the work by hand and we've had quite low unemployment round here so it's been people coming from EU Member States in Eastern Europe and if they go home there won't be anyone to do those jobs Boris Johnson says it's out on the 31st of October come what may what are the consequences of that well thankfully Boris is a man who doesn't always stick to his word so we can hold some comfort in that but he is backing himself into a corner so do you expect and no deal brexit we're preparing as a business for that eventuality I really hope it doesn't come to that because I think that that really is terrible for the UK and it's not good for Europe either businesses are hugely frustrated they've watched the political show at Westminster going on for about three years now they've had no clarity during that time and whenever they think that they're about to get it it proves to be false has it cost jobs already undoubtedly we hear of firms continuously who are moving people as a contingency plan so that they can have them on the continent rather than in the UK in the case of an Odile exit we've seen a number of very big multinational companies make announcements at linked partially to brexit and partially to economic conditions around the world so jobs have been lost contracts have been lost investments have been lost all of that has happened already keeping the wheels of trade turning as a potential nightmare in an Odile brexit world at the moment there's free movement of trucks between the continent and the UK but in an Odile brexit we're told the whole system could quickly collapse because of the need for paperwork and checks at the border well if you think about it at the moment those those borders flow freely at the moment a two-minute cheque would cause a 20-mile queue so you just have to multiply it up by you know every every two minutes means another another 20 miles but four minutes 46 minutes 60 miles we're on a bit of a knife edge with this this is a real a real issue a real dilemma we are not scare mongering this is just the reality of what's going to happen [Music] there are not only concerns about the future of the economy there are real fears for the future of the Union itself while Boris Johnson is doing his best to cut the cord with Europe he may just be tasting the demise of his own United Kingdom here in Scotland people voted overwhelmingly to stay with the EU so many are furious that this English Prime Minister is going to force them out anyway and that's really the push for Scottish independence when it comes to Scotland it's fascinating because on the one hand brexit has confirmed everything that people who believe in Scottish independence always thought the English are bastards they're ripping us out of Europe they're wrecking our economy look what they're doing to us can you not see we should be governing ourselves [Applause] [Music] this was the welcome Boris Johnson received during his first trip to Scotland as Prime Minister [Applause] the Scottish government led by the Scottish National Party is not buying any bit of a Boris style brexit I don't think there's any good that will come out of brexit I threesome a use to talk endlessly about a good braixen there isn't a good brexit your brexit is a foolish thing it should never have happened in those circumstances can Scotland salvage something from brexit in order to build a better future I think the answer is yes but that is not part of this what may used to call this precious Union that Union has had its day the people of Scotland have spoken five years ago the Scottish independence referendum was defeated 55 percent to 45 it was thought at the time the issue was settled but brexit has changed all of that how much closer is Scotland to independence because of brexit well I think brexit is such an exemplary of the problems of being in this incorporating union that it sharpens people's minds so I think more and more people are asking themselves if this is the right way to go or whether independence is a better way to go I regularly I represent a very large rural area of Scotland I represent amongst other things 23 islands and when I meet people many of them will say to me you know we weren't sure in 2014 some voted yes um voted no but now we believe that that's what we should do in some surprising people are moving in that direction now the argument has to be made the debate has to happen the people of Scotland have to make a choice but when they look at what is happening south of the border it does sharpen their thinking about this issue constitutional secretary Michael Russell leads Scotland's negotiations with Westminster over BRICS it is Boris Johnson right when he says you're all being pessimistic be optimistic we can get through this we're Great Britain I noticed that the world's first minister described as vacuous optimism and that's what I would describe it at - it is silly and it's damaging and dangerous this is the economics of the madhouse it is also the politics of the madhouse and Scotland of course voted Scotland voted not to leave the EU and we're there another referendum on that tomorrow it would vote I think an even larger numbers so it's not only wrong to happen for the UK it is an insult to Scotland do you think then that Boris Johnson's prime ministership is going to hasten the process towards independence I think at the present moment then the likelihood is that Boris Johnson's prime ministership will be the last Prime Minister of the UK as it presently exists really I do I believe that that is likely to happen another crisis is looming on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after brexit it will be the only land border between the UK and Europe the rubber hits the road at the Irish border because that's our one key land border with European [Music] there are more border points on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland there than there are down the whole of Eastern Europe this is a complex torturous secure tiss border where trade flows the risks of smuggling the risks of that smuggling leading to terrorist finance the security risks are it's not just an economic problem it's a security problem so just saying well I want to be free I want to be sovereign I want to leave the customs union I want to take the whole of the United Kingdom out of the customs union so Northern Ireland has to remain in the same place in regulatory terms as the rest of Great Britain well fine but then there has real consequences and just wishing away the problem and saying that does then not entail the reaction of a hard border across the island of Ireland and this can all be solved by technology well it can't all be solved by technology the border issue is it's more than a border issue the Irish situation is is so complicated is so and it's still volatile it's still you know the peace process has been great and it's been fantastic progress but take nothing for granted there are fears a hard border could fuel a new push for Irish unity there's some polling out there that says yes if we leave with No Deal and we end up with a border on the island of Ireland a majority in the north would support unification with the Republic with a deal Boris Johnson took office with 99 days to resolve the brexit impasse in the 98 days that remain to us we must turbocharged our preparations to make sure that there is as little disruption as possible to our national life his task has been made all the more difficult by a by-election that reduced his majority to a single vote [Applause] and when Parliament resumes in September he might face a no-confidence motion that could tip Britain into an election [Music] it might be for instance that Parliament doesn't play nicely with mr. Johnson that instead of forcing him not to do No Deal they force him out of office they pass a vote of no confidence in him [Applause] if there is an election Boris Johnson's prime ministership could be cut very short the opposition Labour Party is already swinging into action that we find unacceptable we think should go to a public vote now bear in mind the polls are so unpredictable and so volatile at the moment it is virtually impossible to know what will happen in a general election if anything could make businesses more weary and more frustrated by this whole process than they are right now it's adding another general election into the mix over the past three years we have had an election that was not entirely conclusive we have had the outworking of the referendum on EU membership and you have to remember that in the years just before the brexit process began there were other elections and other referenda in the United Kingdom we've been on a constant hamster wheel of elections and referenda for quite a long time now and that's created a huge degree of uncertainty and you may yet have a couple more runs around that wheel yes indeed and the hamsters are getting tired and they would like to go have a drink I think [Music] Horace Johnston's rise to high office has been built on a political magic and ability not to let an indiscretion a mistake or a missed truth drag him down in a way that would kill off lesser beings [Music] but the brexit monster has already devoured two Prime Minister's half the country is wishing him well the other half is hoping he'll be the third to go I think you'll be a catastrophic failure because I don't think there is any way to reconcile the different promises that he's made to different parts of his his party and that's why I think that the chances of a no deal breaks it just leaving with very chaotic arrangements just went up enormous Lee with his election I think he's got the skills and talents the charisma the resolve necessary to do what is required of this country today but you look back through the great figures of our history no none of them have been perfect in his head is a sort of modern-day Winston Churchill when he's actually the kind of pound shop Trump is what he is but in his head he's kind of he's gonna be the guy is gonna bring Britain together behind this vision of post bracing a great United Kingdom for him it's as though the moment he's been waiting for all his life has finally come and now he has an opportunity to fulfill his destiny you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

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Keywords: Boris Johnson, Brexit, UK, United Kingdom, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Boris, Theresa May, Brexit negotiations, prime minister of uk, Boris Johnson Prime Minister, europe, european union, philip williams, four corners, abc, abc news, latest on brexit

Id: gct3Bq1n7DM

Length: 40min 40sec (2440 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 13 2019

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Can Boris Johnson deliver Brexit and keep the United Kingdom together? | Four Corners
The elevation of Boris Johnson to the Prime Ministership of Great Britain has been greeted with elation in some quarters, with undisguised horror in o...
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