by ANDREW SALMON
Anglo-Asian party stalwarts engineer premier’s downfall but next PM faces towering national challenges
Fate has – at last – caught up with scandal-prone UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The key agents of his doom were some of the ablest and highest-profile members of his cabinet. The resignations – within minutes of each other – of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday prompted what some have dubbed “a constitutional coup.”
In their letters of resignation, both men focused on Johnson’s integrity and judgment – or rather, the lack thereof. That prompted similar moves by multiple other members of Johnson’s government.
Still, a coup de grace was needed. That was delivered by Johnson’s own replacement for Sunak, the very newly minted Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
“Prime Minister: this is not sustainable and it will only get worse…you must do the right thing and go now,” Zahawi wrote in a public letter – the same weapon deployed by Sunak and Javid – on Thursday.
Only then did the formerly bulletproof premier realize the game was up. That afternoon Johnson admitted, “The herd instinct is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves,” adding, “In politics, no one is remotely indispensable.”
Sunak is of Indian ancestry, Javid of Pakistani, and Zahawi, Kurdish. All three have respected political careers; all three are seen as runners in the race to replace Johnson. That opens up the enticing prospect that an Anglo-Asian premier may, for the first time, take the UK’s national helm.
Why enticing? The election of Barack Obama to the top position in the US government by no means ended American racism, and there is likely no magic bullet for its British version. However, an Anglo-Asia leader would be a powerful symbol that the UK – formerly, an arch imperial power, and subsequently a nation still wracked by classism and racism – is advancing into a more inclusive future.
But it will not happen immediately.
Johnson will – at least according to current plans – cling on in 10 Downing Street until a new leader of the Conservative Party is chosen in September or October. The chosen one will lead the UK until the next general election – to be held, at the latest, in January 2025.
In the meantime, sit back, pour yourself a large gin and tonic and prepare to enjoy. There will be furious backs-and-forths in the chamber, daggers stabbed into colleagues’ backs behind closed doors, and bloody leaks splattering the pages of the press.
Beyond this entertaining political carnage, ultra-serious issues are in play.
The future trajectory of the post-Brexit UK, a G7 economy, is far from certain. There are economic storms bearing down on the country now, and questions hang over the country’s relationship with both the EU, and its own constituent parts: The futures of both Northern Ireland and Scotland in the union are not assured.
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