Two defeats in conservative strongholds indicate a possible bankruptcy of the great alliance that gave him victory in 2019
The disappearance of ‘Brexit’ as a central issue in the concerns of British voters has damaged Boris Johnson’s ability to win elections in his party fiefdoms. That is the possible conclusion of his poor results in two local elections this year, which have led the British press to portray him as a leader in danger.
The conservatives’ loss of a seat they had held for nearly two centuries is “worse than their darkest nightmares,” according to ‘The Sun’. It was “a referendum on Boris Johnson and his head of government,” says the editorial of the newspaper that published his columns, ‘The Telegraph’. “The prime minister’s calamities threaten to create a leadership vacuum,” says the ‘Financial Times’.
“An injured Johnson may not have much time to restore confidence in his leadership,” clinches ‘The Times’. And the editorialists had written their comments before, on Friday night, Johnson’s secretary who was going to investigate the accusations of holding illegal parties in December 2020 had to resign, when it was published that he had participated in at least one of they.
But does the press verdict or the continuation of the supposedly illegal Christmas season saga really matter to Johnson? It seemed until now that he despised its impact. In October, when understaffing sparked media alarm, gasoline and other supply blockages, he made a comedic speech at the party’s annual conference.
The jester knows that the court and its rituals are ridiculous, and Johnson knows that the vast majority of voters are not interested in party conferences or long speeches. They would have significance only in the bubble of politicians and journalists. The prime minister knows that world well and knows that, after each of his stumbles, the media change the subject when they find something more interesting.
The loss of the seat in North Shropshire, in an election to replace a resigned MP, is attributed to the recent attrition of the Prime Minister. Johnson is no longer faced with singular episodes that go up in smoke, but with the incessant repetition of suspicions and bad news. “A litany of things,” in his words, would have prevented him this time from “focusing” on the interests of the electorate.
Hard times
The organizers of the campaign of the Liberal-Democratic Party confess, however, to the ‘The Guardian’, that, in their contact with the voters of the constituency, complaints about the reduction of the ambulance service or the circumstances were mentioned many more times. of farmers than the Christmas holidays or the apparent chaos that engulfs Downing Street.
Almost 60% of voters in North Shropshire opted for ‘Brexit’ in the 2016 referendum. It is an agricultural and livestock district, a sector that complained about the European Union bureaucracy and that the vast majority voted for the march, against the recommendation of the leaders of their associations. Now, the sector feels abandoned by the government. It signed a trade treaty with Australia this week, which they say also threatens its future prosperity.
In ‘Farmer’s Weekly’, a trade magazine, two Shropshire farmers confessed that they had voted for the Liberal-Democratic Party candidate, listing their grievances – slowness in crafting new policy after ‘Brexit’, indifference to her difficulties , …- and a third voted ‘tory’ because in difficult moments, according to him, you have to support the Government.
Johnson already conceded a defeat in June, at Chesham and Amersham, another Conservative stronghold, who voted to stay. In 2019 he won again. His base remained loyal, perhaps to avoid a victory for Labor’s Jeremy Corbyn. This year, the Liberal Democrats benefited in prosperous Buckinghamshire, as in Shropshire, from the tactical vote of the opposition and of turncoats or abstentionists ‘Tories’.
The prime minister won two years ago attracting the vast majority of Brexit voters: Conservatives and Labor. In those two elections that great alliance has been cracked. Johnson is on trial for his administration as the country faces another wave of the pandemic, a dramatic rise in inflation and taxes, and tough times that require good management.
.