Boris Johnson has
suffered three successive blows to his credibility since Friday, which
call into question his title as the undisputed favourite to become the
next leader of the Conservative Party and the man to succeed Theresa May in office.
Given a strong lead and strong media
criticism, there is a perception that the former foreign secretary is
avoiding public confrontation. The last-man-standing opponent — who
prevailed over eight opponents — is foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt. Hunt called Johnson a “coward” on Monday morning.
“On the question of debates, he is being a coward,” Hunt said on Sky television.
Meanwhile, The Guardian broke the story that the police showed up on Johnson’s residence on Friday morning, after neighbours heard a loud altercation between him and his girlfriend. Since, Johnson has been challenged to explain and he has insisted that this is a personal affair.
On Saturday, the Observer delivered
another blow to Johnson’s credibility, publishing a video of Steve
Bannon talking about his consultations Boris Johnson. In the video,
Bannon boasts how he discussed with Johnson the talking points of his
speech following his resignation as a foreign secretary. Johnson has
always denied political ties to the former campaign manager of US
President Donald Trump. The footage was filmed by US filmmaker Alison Klayman for a documentary entitled The Brink.
Perhaps the least damaging assault to
Johnson’s credibility came from the Governor of the Bank of England,
Mark Carney, who questioned his claim that the UK can avoid EU tariffs
in a no-deal Brexit scenario. In an interview with the BBC, the Canadian
who stirred monetary policy amid the Brexit crisis recalled that World
Trade Organization rules require the EU to apply the same tariffs to all
of their trading partners with whom they do not have a free trade
agreement.
That means that Johnson’s claim that “there will be no
tariffs, there will be no quotas because what we want to do is to get a
standstill in our current arrangements under GATT 24,” is inaccurate.
Read more at: Three severe blows to Johnson’s credibility
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