GB News guest predicts Boris Johnson will resign in 2022
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
The damming comments come as 2021 closes with a series of scandals rocking the Conservative Party, and hence the reputation of the PM in the process. From the Christmas party-gate affair, to cash for peerage scandals, Andrew Neil used the opportunity to slam the man who got Brexit done, and led the Tories to an 80-seat majority in Parliament.
Starting the critique on the back of the embarrassing North Shropshire by-election defat, Mr Neil said: “No wonder even loyal Tory activists are talking ever louder that 2022 might be time for a change of leader.”
Adding that the situation is looking grim for the PM, he said: “The bad news is that things are likely to get worse in 2022 — not just for Johnson but for the rest of us, too — before they get better.”
Speaking of how Mr Johnson can polish his reputation in the New Year, the former GB News presenter said: “His salvation is entirely within his own hands, if he can transform his lacklustre Downing Street operation with fresh blood and purpose — and provide the country with the leadership and direction these difficult times require.”
He added: “Do all that and Johnson could finish 2022 in better shape than he’s starting it.”
Identifying one major hurdle for the PM in the New Year, Mr Neil wrote in a column piece for MailPlus that energy prices having an impact on household budgets would be his next problem.
He said: “It does not bode well for the PM. The squeeze on living standards will take political centre stage in the first half of 2022 and it’s not an issue on which Johnson can talk with much confidence or conviction.”
Mr Neil added: “It requires empathy and seriousness of purpose: not Johnsonian hallmarks.”
The commentator also suggested that Labour would continue to close the gap between themselves and the Tories.
He said: “It means Labour’s current modest lead in the polls is likely to be sustained — perhaps even grow — in the first half of the year. It means potentially dire prospects for the Tories in the early May local elections.”
Suggesting the PM could be gone by autumn, he added: “If the Tories reach early summer consistently behind in the polls, Johnson’s personal popularity in the dirt, having suffered a drubbing in the local elections and unable to meet universal concerns about the squeeze in living standards, then the chances of a leadership challenge are strong and the possibility of a new prime minister by the autumn at least 50:50.”
With Britain locked in the fascination of what wallpaper Mr Johnson chose, or whether a wine and cheese function was a party or a work meeting, Mr Neil suggests international affairs should be taken into account far more seriously.
He said: “We start 2022 with 175,000 Russian troops mustered on the Ukrainian border, China talking about dress rehearsals for an invasion of Taiwan and Western intelligence thinking Iran is closer than ever to building a nuclear bomb.”
He added: “In geopolitical terms, 2022 is going to be the year of living dangerously, at a time when the West is bereft of leadership to deal with the growing confidence and expansionism of the world’s major authoritarian leaders.”
DON’T MISS:
Euro is doomed! Serious threat to survival [FINANCE]
Big cat warning: Predators on the loose in Britain [REPORT]
French fury at Macron for travel ban on UK holidaymakers [INSIGHT]
Mr Neil argued that no world leader is up to the role of addressing the issues.
Slamming President Joe Biden as a doddery leader, calling German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz a man of no credentials, and suggesting Emmanuel Macron is tied up in domestic affairs, Mr Neil suggested Mr Johnson is no different.
He said: “Nobody looks to him for leadership on the global stage. He was a pretty useless foreign secretary, leaving no discernible mark. He’s had little to say about global issues as prime minister, bar some grandstanding at the climate change jamboree in Glasgow last November.”
Suggesting only a few loyal supporters back the PM, he stated: “The danger for Johnson is not only that the Tory faithful will come to regard him as the Great Loser rather than the Great Winner, but it is also that they conclude he is not the appropriate leader for the troubling tenor of these serious times.”
Ending his debate on the PM as a world leader, he said: “If that becomes their settled view then it is indeed likely to be curtains for his premiership.”
Mr Neil concluded his damming condemnation of the PM by saying: “I would argue against that — because the old Boris schtick doesn’t work anymore.
“People are tired of it and they want something more adult. If they can’t get it from him then they will seek elsewhere. Can Johnson change in a way the times so badly demand?”
He ended: “I confess to having my doubts. But that is entirely a matter for him.”
Source: Read Full Article