Boris Johnson’s premiership has entered a new and (for him) dangerous phase. Many of the MPs who opposed him in the lobbies are those who propelled him into Downing Street in 2019. A majority of the rebels who were in parliament two years ago publicly backed him for the party leadership. It is always dangerous for political leaders to forget to “dance with the one that brung ya” — and this is what is worrying Johnson loyalists in the cabinet. One lamented to me: “The fundamental problem is that he doesn’t have a natural constituency any more.” This secretary of state points out that Johnson started as a

Source: The Times December 17, 2021 06:08 UTC