Andrew Marr: Boris is the ghost of a PM with a ghost of a government

7 July 2022, 18:09

Boris Johnson is the ghost of a prime minister with a ghost of a government, Andrew Marr has said.

Opening LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter reflected on the "sheer oddness" of the day, following Boris Johnson Downing Street speech announcing that he would be stepping down from his role.

"Boris Johnson did not resign as prime minister - despite all those banners announcing his resignation on your TV screens," Andrew said.

"He said he would resign.

"He resigned as Tory leader which gives him constitutional status of a man in a suit who lives in central London.

"He accepted, reluctantly, that the next Tory leader would become Prime Minister.

"No apologies. Nothing on lying. Nothing on sex pests. And right now, and over the weekend, and next week and for most of the summer, the prime minister of this country is Boris Johnson - the same Boris Johnson who had apparently been forced out by Tory MPs.

"The man in a suit has appointed a new cabinet. He lives at Number 10 Downing Street.

"The man in a suit is is going to make a big speech about tax cuts. He will be calling, and probably visiting, his new best friend, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

"He will look like a prime minister and his government will look like a government.

"But a real prime minister must have the support of a majority of MPs in the Commons and this man doesn't.

"He is the ghost of a prime minister and this is the ghost of a government."

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Boris Johnson did not resign today, Andrew Marr declares

Andrew continued: "It can't do much till there is a new Tory leader, someone actually backed by Conservative MPs. How's that going to go?

"This morning I was talking to MPs who didn't believe Johnson was really going to leave  – who thought that somehow he'd use the summer to concoct a cunning plan to stay on. These days, anything's possible. But it's very hard.

"The timetable for a leadership contest is now totally in the hands of the backbench 1922 committee, Johnson's enemies.

"However many runners and riders there are, the 22 will run the race hot and hard, so there are just two names left in a fortnight, when parliament breaks up for the summer.

"Then the final two make their pitch to Tory members round the country. That takes most of August.

"By early September, there will be a new Conservative leader. Boris Johnson gets a final swan-song at prime minister’s questions in the short September parliamentary session - say, around September the 7th.

"The new Tory leader is made PM by the Queen and moves into Downing Street.

"Boris Johnson doesn't get to barnstorm or appeal directly to the Tory conference which begins in Birmingham in early October.

"That's the new leader's big moment.

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"Given that he can’t hold back any of that, why does Johnson want to stay on rather than, as many of his backbenchers hoped, handing over to a caretaker Prime Minister such as Dominic Raab?

"What his enemies in the party fear is not that he is plotting some kind of sudden coup, but that he is looking further ahead for vindication and revenge.

"Over the summer he underlines that he’s the champion of tax cuts, Brexit and the Ukraine war.

"He looms, arms folded, chin jutting, behind the new leader, lurking distractingly in the background while he or she struggles with strikes, Northern Ireland and inflation.

"Canada's leader back in the 1960s, Pierre Trudeau, said that country's relationship with the United States was like being in bed with an elephant - and that’s how it would feel for whichever poor so-and-so replaces Johnson. Not comfy. Not restful.

"Then perhaps, when that next leader loses the election, Boris Johnson comes storming back - rather as Donald Trump would like to do in the United States.

"Well, it’s what folk with the smarts are saying. You have been warned. You heard it here first."