Bye, bye Boris. Hello Liz!
Was BoJo good or not?
Boris Johnson will in early September 2022 leave his post as UK PM. As of the 5th Sept 2022, Liz Truss has been appointed Tory leader by her party members and will travel to Balmoral to meet HM Queen Elizabeth II to be officially appointed as the new Prime Minister. Truss will be the third female PM, following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher.
Boris clearly hasn’t been popular - and many would cite his past acts prior to being PM as typical of his conduct as PM. Clearly, the masses are now seeing the degree of lying and dishonesty apparent to some many years ago.
History may not look kindly on Boris as PM - though the length of his tenure in office would be longer than Eden (1955-1957), and roughly similar to Callaghan (1976-1979).
Since WWII, there have been the following PMs:
Winston Churchill (Conservative) - 1940-1945 and 1951-1955
Clement Attlee (Labour) - 1945-1951
Anthony Eden (Conservative) - 1955-1957
Harold Macmillan (Conservative) - 1957-1963
Sir Alec Douglas-Hume (Conservative) - 1963-64
Harold Wilson (Labour) - 1964-1970 and 1974-1976
Edward Heath (Conservative) - 1970-1974
James Callaghan (Labour) - 1976-1979
Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) - 1979-1990
John Major (Conservative)- 1990-1997
Tony Blair (Labour) - 1997-2007
Gordon Brown (Labour) - 2007-2010
David Cameron (Conservative) - 2010-2016
Theresa May (Conservative) - 2016-2019
Boris Johnson (Conservative) - 2019-2022
Liz Truss (Conservative) - 2022-
Criteria
Economic
Home
Foreign
AchievementsÂ
Legacy
These are criteria on which Johnson will be rated, and incidentally all other PMs post-WWII. These cover most important areas of policy.
So without any further ado, let’s see how well Boris has done as PM:
Economic - 5/10
Boris got Brexit done, which his predecessor May couldn’t do.
The EU/UK deal is causing issues in Northern Ireland, but for the most part it has been received with a mixture of relief and indifference by most in the country.
The economy tanked after the COVID lockdowns, but this was natural. The UK’s GDP growth in 2021 however was the highest of all G7 countries, in the resultant rebound.
Unemployment and inflation remained low for much of his tenure, with the latter rising mainly due to the Ukraine war’s effects.
Home - 3/10
The government were perhaps too slow to enact lockdown measures.
However, the decisions made amidst the lockdowns were broadly correct.
As mentioned prior, Brexit was done, after three years of continuous impasse.
And there were some grand plans for infrastructure developments, such as the Northern Powerhouse, Levelling Up, HS2, etc.
However, a low score must be held here, due to his continual lying and deceit on his actions during lockdown.
Foreign - 7/10
Whilst he got Brexit done, he ensured Britain was one of the foremost countries in providing aid to Ukraine. The savage war in the country, where the future of NATO could be at stake, has seen him being proclaimed a national ally/hero there.
Russia has re-emerged as a major threat, following the end of the Cold War more than 20 years ago. However, Boris was one of the few who went in hard to match this new threat.
Achievements - 4/10
Supporting Ukraine is worthy. Though the slow response to the COVID pandemic, as well as subsequent lies and dishonest amidst this are pretty much telling of his legacy.
Legacy - 3/10
There were some good things, as stated. But Johnson’s apparent dishonesty and lack of integrity was his undoing.
After the Chris Pincher affair, he massively lost the trust and support of his Cabinet and wider government, to the point that senior figures in the party told him to resign. He had become a liability in the end, and had no choice but to resign. Not until after nearly half of his government resigned after the Pincher fiasco became clear.