Brexit: Hard Realities

Do we really need a new book such as “Johnson at 10” by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell to know that Boris Johnson did not have a plan for Brexit? Aren’t all the disastrous aftermath consequences of Brexit enough to tell that Brexit leaders pushed the nation into an option without any potential for success?

The new book says that Mr Johnson, while watching coverage of the referendum vote results on TV at his home said: “We’ve got no plan. We haven’t thought about it. I didn’t think it would happen. Holy crap, what will we do?”

Although the first evidence which suggests that he did not have any plan appeared straight after the results, when he escaped taking responsibility as a “leave” campaign leader in the Conservative Party and did not present himself to replace Cameron and make Brexit work, but let a “remain” supporter, Theresa May, lead the country where she struggled a lot to find a solution for a problem she did not push for, while Johnson tried his best to oppose almost every compromised solution May tried to reach between different parties, or even among her Conservative party.

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Then, even when he took charge of the government after a campaign of “get Brexit done”, he rarely came forward with any plan or evidence of a blueprint to make British deals better, rather than admitting the overwhelming evidence of the negative impact of Brexit which will prevail for over a decade. Instead, he pushed ahead with previous agreements his predecessor, May, had tailored, with tiny changes.

Someone may suggest that there was a problem of integrity and credibility even in his decision to support Brexit, in the first place, after some suggest that he may have prepared two different articles to be published: one, to support “remain” and, another, to support “leave” where, ultimately, he chose Brexit. But the credibility question chased Johnson when he broke his own Covid rules in an embarrassing situation to the whole nation, which watched their Queen mourning for her beloved husband, all alone.

From economics to immigration and refugees, evidence after another appears every day to prove that the Brexit leaders encouraged and pushed the nation to take the wrong decision.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.