Rory Stewart's brutal analysis of Boris Johnson after the Partygate report | LBC

he doesn't care how much he trashes how much he lies how many institutions he he craps on as long as he Boris manages to continue with his weird cult I I think he's definitely proved that he's dangerous now yes absolutely no doubt about that and I think he's dangerous because he is challenging the Constitution again again he's challenging all the things that Parliament the courts everything that's supposed to protect us against politicians this is a point which is I I mean you won't be surprised that and I think absolutely crucial and possibly getting overlooked because we can go back to the propagation we can go back to the Owen Paterson story we can go back to the resignation of Ethics advisors the refusal to reappoint that there was and because he's so chaotic it's hard to say with confidence that it was concerted but there were certainly repeated and consistent attempts to trash the institutions that essentially hold everything together and it's very weird because he campaigned for brexit on the saying the reason he was doing it was for parliamentary sovereignty we were going to leave the European Union we were going to restore British institutions Parliament the court but actually what he's done is every time they've criticized him or in any way stood in his way he's gone on to rubbish them and it makes it feel as though the only thing that matters obviously to him is himself I mean and he doesn't care how much he trashes how much he lies how many institutions he he craps on as long as he Boris manages to continue with his weird cult well I might ask you about the actual cult in in a moment but before that you've sat on select committees and you would have been following these events very closely most people so far surprised perhaps initially by how far they went in terms of the sanction or the the suggested sanction and then upon consideration and upon um the study of the report probably not that surprised after all but it is I mean it's a it's a big isn't it 90 days and a withdrawal of a parliamentary pass being suggested that have they gone a little further than perhaps you expected I think they've definitely gotten further I think they have been made even angrier by the way that he's attacked the committee and the way that he tried to resign before they suspended him uh he was obviously he was jumping before he was pushed and that sort of added to their sense of theory but it's also important to remember as people have pointed out that the majority of this committee are conservative party members yes of course including and quite actually quite a broad variety from different ages different intakes different parts the conservative party ranging from brexiteers through to people who are more on the remain side and the fact that they are all unanimous and it just demonstrates their sense as parliamentarians have discussed at the way Boris Johnson liked them which brings us to the cult I'm not this morning plenty of other people will for good or for real giving much weight or attention to his tantrum to his his response that was probably itself a contempt of of parliament given that it was made available to people before the report was but when you look at former colleagues still Clinging On do you have a a an understanding of them that perhaps the rest that would elude the rest of us these are people that you broke bed with bread with that you went through the lobby with that you followed whips with you I mean you see some of these people now it's still clinging to the carcass of Johnson's career do you get it in any way it's very very strange very strange and some of these people I remember back in 2019 when I was trying to run for the leadership against Boris of course well not as fanatical about him then I mean back in the day I remember one of them who's who's um being caught up in a lot of this saying to me when I said you know how can you possibly support Boris you know he's going to be he's a terrible human being he's going to be a terrible prime minister he said to me yeah that may or may not be true Rory but he's a winner he's going to win and what seems to have happened is they've gone from seeing him as a kind of useful tool for winning elections into seeing him as the kind of Representative of everything they care about in the world yeah and and I guess that is that they've been dragged deeper and deeper I think having tied themselves to him and defended him in the first 10 or 15 scandals they almost feel they have no choice other than to continue defending him a lot of these people of course been rewarded by him I mean you need to look at the fact that almost all the people out defending him have got knighthoods from him or he was trying to put them in the House of Lords um so I think that's another thing to bear in mind here where does that leave the party leaves the party in a terrible situation I mean Boris Johnson in addition to trashing Parliament insulting the courts is basically trying to take the conservative party down with him do you think so yeah yeah his fantasy is to take his revenge on Rishi sunak prove that he's bigger than anybody he's almost certainly going to try to provide if he can't take over the conservative party again after the next election he'll try to create some Splinter faction group to get himself back in and he doesn't care how much damage he's doing doesn't care that he's insulting the current prime minister undermining conservative selectral chances because in the end it's all about Boris Johnson what would you advise Rishi sunac to do I think he's got to lean into who he is so I mean his reputation is for being slightly more steady understated professional he's got to hope that he can let Boris embarrass himself and not get dragged too deeply into this and and with regard to this it's hard to imagine what he could say that wouldn't upset or even alienate parts of his own party now yes although it may be that we're exaggerating how many members of parliament this is yeah I mean of course some of them are resigning in boris's Failure anyway so they won't be around it very long well you say that some of them have already changed their mind or at least pressed the delay button until somehow specified point in the future it's and I think the other thing that's going to be tough for him is the vote because this Committee just presents the vote department and that vote will really spread the conservative party between people like um Jacob rismark who keeps saying oh this is all storming a teacup it was just a piece of cake sir Jacob Rory just approving your previous Point absolutely um and that and I think there's a it's I mean he's a very interesting example on this because he was a guy who when I joined on with him was one of the most pompous Defenders of the idea of parliament kind of big professional backbencher read all the detailed parliamentary procedures loved all that stuff and his now saying I think in his latest tweet parliament's taking itself too seriously gosh the irony the irony um I think I think I just thank you there because that we could talk all day but I appreciate you've got other things that you need to be oh I'll tell you what one final question because you are a historian as well of course as a politician can you put it alongside anything else from British political history have you you sort of we can call it a scandal I think that's probably a matter of record what does it sit beside what is it up there with I I think he is Boris Johnson I think is in my mind close to being the worst prime minister I can think of I mean going back in history there were some terrible ones in the 18th century Lord North yeah but but I think Boris is is is in a sense worse because all the others even if they were pretty ineffectual strangely in Britain retained a very strong degree of respect for the institution or fear if not respect then at least fear of the institutions yeah but I think I mean if you I was just talking to John Major yesterday he's an example of somebody who you know he was a conservative there'll be many listeners who won't like him but he had a very very strong sense of what was decent yes and I think that sort of stayed with him and I I think that that probably would have been true of Clement Atley on the later side uh so going back in the day the only person I think that maybe measures are who was an incomparably better politician a more effective prime minister but had some of the same shakiness and shadiness to him was Lloyd George who was clearly pretty corrupt pretty peculiar back in the 1920s but apart from that I'm struggling to find anyone quite as immoral as Boris Johnson occupying that position Rory Stewart many thanks indeed

Channel: LBC

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Id: gwS3hVOM96k

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023