Hasta La Vista, Baby: The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson - BBC News

foreign fighter jet took off from an RAF base in Lincolnshire it's co-pilot had just announced he was about to become Britain's ex prime minister after three happy years in the coffee and after performing some pretty difficult if not astonishing Feats I am now going to hand over the controls seamlessly to someone else don't know who Boris Johnson believes in the great man theory of history and he thinks he is that great man like his hero Winston Churchill Churchill the guy made the most incredible series of mistakes his early career was studied with disasters of one kind or another but he always came back from them and he always stuck by what he believed when Johnson became prime minister three years ago Churchill's grandson Sir Nicholas somes his friend and fellow etonian told me of the text he had sent I said to him when Churchill became prime minister on the day he became prime minister he went back to his flat where he met my grandmother and his children and they drank a bottle of champagne and he proposed The Taste which I equated to Boris of here's to not buggering it up and that is my hope for boys and your fear my fear is that he could buggery love throughout his life Boris Johnson's favored mode of Transport has been the seat of his pants his roller coaster Premiership has been dominated by questions about his character his integrity and the biggest puzzle of all who is the real Boris Johnson get me a ladder he is the people person that people want to see as their prime minister they want someone they can relate to and they can relate to someone who gets stuck on a zip wire or someone you know who has his shirt hanging out or because that's what they do every day of their lives do you think that you learned something for later life from acting in place at Eaton that you could actually get more laughs by looking as if you don't know your lines than actually remembering them well I certainly think that as a general tactic in life if that's what you're driving at it is it is often useful to give the slight impression that you are deliberately pretending not to know what is going on because the reality may be that you don't know what is going on but people won't be able to tell the difference this is why he's dementing for other politicians because they're all to an extent playing a part assigned to them by the party you know you have to be loyal you have to be a good Tory Boris has realized quite early on that he would go further if he broke all those rules and people would love him even more the doubters the doomsters the gloomsters they are going to get it wrong again because we're going to restore Trust in our democracy Johnson had become Prime Minister promising to end the deadlock of brexit he brought with him as his chief advisor Dominic Cummings The Mastermind of the leave campaign who believed in Creative destruction Cummings and Johnson had worked out that the only way to do brexit was to behave in a pretty outrageous fashion and then to get an election which would be the people versus Parliament they really liked driving the remainers so mad with rage that the remainers in many cases stopped thinking straight with the slogan get brexit done Johnson enhanced his reputation as a winner he won the general election by a landslide tearing down normally Rock Solid labor seats in the so-called red wall of the North the Prime Minister celebrated the Chinese New Year in January 2020 year of the Rat began with a far more deadly challenge than brexit arriving in the form of covid-19 prime minister are you concerned about the coronavirus coming to the United Kingdom in February the Prime Minister regarded this as just a scare story don't worry about it I'm going to get Chris Woody to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realizes it's nothing to be frightened of I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody uh you'll be pleased to know and I continue to shake hands but suddenly things became deadly serious as Johnson took the country into lockdown as the pandemic spread okay I'll stop in an hour and then get further instructions and with his unerving Knack of becoming the center of the story the Prime Minister himself tested positive for the virus and went into self-isolation and he didn't really believe in people falling out he didn't even have a GP he didn't have a job Association about like who's your GP we need to get a doctor now didn't have one didn't know who had no idea who his GP was his advisors claimed he was doing well but when he held a zoom meeting with his cabinet things seemed rather different I remember being on a zoom call cabinet Zoom call and I remember saying PM is clearly of dreadfully unwell looks and sounds awful and we need to bring this meeting to a halt it's like watching some like watching a car crash and we shouldn't be doing it he needs to be in bed he needs to be uh having proper treatment the Prime Minister was secretly driven to Saint Thomas's Hospital half a mile from number 10 and the next day he was moved into intensive care suddenly we were facing a situation where the PM you know arguably could be dead by the morning people like that are meant to be Invincible Prime Ministers don't get ill they don't die Boris Johnson said later it would be wrong to say that I thought oh my goodness this is it some terrible buoyancy Within Me kept convincing me that everything would almost certainly be all right in the end I've today left hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life no question after a fortnight's convalescence at checkers Johnson returned to work if this virus were a physical assailant an unexpected and invisible mugger which I can tell you from personal experience it is then this is the moment when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor in December 2021 he launched the Tories war on crime but media reports were emerging but Johnson and his staff had been breaking lockdown Rules by holding parties inside number 10. I can tell you that the guidelines were followed at all times will you did you investigate that yourself have you satisfied yourself I got to satisfied myself that the guidelines were followed at all times uh that evening a remarkable video emerged it showed Johnson's press secretary Allegra Stratton in the briefing room at number 10 rehearsing with other aides how to deny reports of a wine and Cheese party inside number 10. this is recorded this fictional party was a business meet and it was not a social distance I was also Furious to see that clip and Mr Speaker I apologize I apologize unreservedly Mr Speaker it goes without saying that if those rules were broken then there will be disciplinary action for all those involved there were outraged calls for Johnson to resign instead Allegra Stratton took the bullet this afternoon I am offering my resignation to the Prime Minister thanks for your time I thought she was very very hard done by not least because the Prime Minister turned on her greater love hath no prime minister than to lay down the life of his friends for his own Survival as the new year of 2022 broke any hope Johnson had that party gate would go away was quickly dashed ITV News came up with a leaked killer email it had been sent by Johnson's senior civil service advisor Martin Reynolds on the 20th of May 2020 when lockdown regulations were at their toughest addressed to a hundred Downing Street staff and marked official sensitive the Reynolds email said hi all after what has been an incredibly busy period we thought it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the number 10 Garden this evening please join us from 6 pm and bring your own booze it wasn't the language Sir Humphrey would have used prime minister the next day the Prime Minister after weeks of denials that there had been any lockdown parties in number 10 now admitted that he had attended the Reynolds event to thank his staff I believed implicitly that this was a work event but Mr Speaker with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside I should have found some other way to thank them it started with reports of boozy parties in Downing street during lockdown minister pretored that when parties now it turns out he was at the parties all along can't the promise to see why the British public think he's late things were going from bad to worse for the Prime Minister it was then reported that in April 2021 on the eve of the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh there had been two parties in number 10 that had lasted into the small hours was having to apologize to the queen about those parties the night before she put her husband of over 70 years she laid him to rest was that a moment of Shame for you I I deeply and bitterly regret uh that that that happened and I can only uh you know and renew my apologies both to uh to her majesty and uh to the country uh for misjudgments that that were made and and for which I take full responsibility foreign but just when it seemed the PM's days were numbered he was given a reprieve by an unlikely figure Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine the Prime Minister sought to organize the West's response and became a hero in Kiev this is Ukraine's finest hour that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come in April 2022 the Metropolitan Police who'd been investigating partygate announced that the Prime Minister had broken covered rules he'd attended a surprise birthday party for himself in the cabinet room and was given a fixed penalty notice let me say immediately that I've paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology well I never thought that I would see the day when a British prime minister would be helping put the police with our inquiries and be convicted of an offense and not go that's the moment when I realized he had none of the decences and that he had gone wrong people think you know he's the first Prime Minister ever to have been found guilty of um an offensive crime oh no I'm sure there are lots of prime ministers who've received to fix penalty notices for lots of things speeding no it's a fixed penalty notice I've certainly had to so I'll hold my hands up to them so I didn't have fixed penalty notices for partygate they were for speeding by now many Tory back benches have become so disillusioned by the Prime Minister that they triggered a vote of no confidence I can announce that the Parliamentary party does have confidence [Applause] although Johnson survived the vote 40 of his own MPS had voted against him and the Tories then lost two seats in by-elections caused by sexual scandals involving their MPS [Music] Johnson meanwhile was in Africa at the start of a series of international meetings I'm not going to pretend these are brilliant results I'm we've got to listen we've got to we've got to learn when people are finding it tough they send messages to politicians meanwhile at Westminster a cloud no bigger than a man's wandering hand was emerging on June the 30th Chris pincher the Tory deputy chief whip suddenly resigned the sun reported that he had groped two men at the members only conservative Carlton club in Saint James's his resignation letter to the PM opened with the words last night I drank far too much I've embarrassed myself and other people which is the last thing I want to do initially number 10 said that when he appointed pincher Johnson knew nothing about his reputation as a sexual predator that line was dramatically upended on the morning of July the 5th by Lord Simon McDonald the former head of the foreign office he came out publicly and revealed that Johnson had been briefed in person about pincher's previous predatory behavior I know that the senior official briefed the prime minister in person because that official told me so at the time I think they need to come clean that afternoon having refused to answer questions about the pincher Affair the Prime Minister gave a mayor culpa to the BBC I think it was a bad mistake of mine to to a point uh Chris pincher to the government and I regret it and I just want to make it absolutely clear that there is no place in this government for anyone who abuses their position of power minutes after the TV interview went out two senior ministers resigned from the cabinet in quick succession the health secretary Sajid Javid and the chancellor Rishi sunak both said they no longer trusted the prime minister we have to conclude that enough is enough the number of departures from across government reached over 60 a record Simon Hart are we reaching the end game for Boris Johnson I am late for a meeting in number 10. Simon Hart a Welsh secretary and longtime Johnson loyalist went to see the PM in his office at number 10. my final conversation with Boris actually was about to look whichever way you look there's somebody you know pointing a gun at you and I remember just saying to to Boris look you know if the cabinet doesn't sort of get you then the back benches the 1922 committee will probably get you if it's not this week they'll get you next week and Bing Boris typically it was a case of but I've got a chance he said I can still turn this around I said I don't think even you can do this uh prime minister heart resigned as did the Prime Minister any regrets prime minister and in his final appearance at pmqs Johnson offered words of advice for his successor focus on the road ahead focus on the road ahead but always remember to check the rear view mirror we and help save another country from barbarism and frankly that's enough to be going on with Mission largely accomplished hasta la vista and left the chamber to a standing ovation but only from his own side he gets the big decisions absolutely right whether it was Ukraine covid vaccines cost of living support financial support got all the big calls right and I think we'll regret removing him as our prime minister one of our most successful in fact our most successful prime minister and a generation when he uttered those farewell words hasta la vista baby that hint in there that one day you'll see me again I'm not written off yet we've certainly not written himself off in his own mind but my God various spare us you did some very considerable things but you blew it you ignored the rules and the rules got you Boris is a chance he is a chancellor there'll be lots of prime ministers have been chances um people would have said that of Churchill he was a bit of a Chancellor in his day but Boris is not churchible Johnson himself was always concerned about his legacy he once told me why he wanted to move from Fleet Street to Westminster because no one puts up statues to journalists

Channel: BBC News

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Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 02 2022