London Calling: How does India look from afar? Looming world power or dysfunctional democracy? And what’s happening in Britain, and the West, that India needs to know about and perhaps learn from? This fortnightly column helps forge the connections so essential in our globalising world.
It’s strange how some of the most powerful men in the world persistently complain of being victimised. When they are held to account, they insist that it’s all a political hit job, an outrage, ridiculous. There’s not a scintilla of remorse or regret for their misdemeanours – no willingness to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions.
I’m thinking, of course, of those terrible twins of the western world, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. Both have had a turbulent week. Trump has become the first former US president to face federal criminal charges. He is going to appear in court on Tuesday accused of 37 offences. These relate to the taking and concealing of classified documents, some apparently involving the US’s defence plans and capability, after he left the White House two years ago. Along with the indictment, prosecutors have released photographic evidence showing stacks of document boxes – some apparently including top secret papers – stored haphazardly in a bathroom at one of Trump’s Florida properties. If found guilty, he could end up in jail.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Johnson is about to be condemned by a powerful all-party committee of MPs for deliberately or recklessly misleading the British Parliament about the ‘Partygate’ scandal, a series of parties and social events held at the prime minister’s office-cum-residence at 10 Downing Street which flagrantly breached the then COVID lockdown restrictions. He has already suffered the disgrace of paying a fine for breaking these regulations – rules which he himself introduced and publicly appealed for everyone to observe. It was a large part of the reason for Johnson’s resignation as PM last year, after Conservative MPs lost confidence in the leader who in 2019 had delivered them an emphatic election victory.
Although the details of the committee’s ruling have not yet been made public, they have been shared with Boris Johnson. Cue: explosion! On Friday evening, the former PM released a long, furious and self-pitying statement saying he had been convicted by a ‘kangaroo court’ which wanted to undo Brexit and his other achievements. Johnson announced he was standing down from Parliament straight away; two of his closest allies have also announced their immediate resignation as MPs. So there are three Parliamentary by-elections coming up, which will be keenly contested and watched – not the way Rishi Sunak, the current Conservative prime minister, had planned to spend his summer.
As well as being entitled and arrogant, Johnson and Trump have a lot more in common. And not just their trademark blond hair styles. Both are right-wing populists who see themselves as anti-establishment and have strong backing among their own party’s rank-and-file membership. Both are remarkable political communicators. Both displayed – on their way up, and also once in power – a breath-taking absence of principle and integrity. In personal terms, both have been distinctly priapic and have children from at least three marriages or relationships.
But they are not clones. Boris Johnson is socially liberal, a supporter of same-sex marriage and abortion rights, while Donald Trump reflects the deep, cloying conservatism of his political base. And while Johnson is devious and disorganised, his venality is not on the same scale.
Both men believe they can stage a political come back – but one stands a much better chance than the other. Trump remains the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election. If the American economy slips, or Joe Biden’s age (he’s 80) becomes even more of a liability, Trump could win even if he’s still embroiled in court cases.
Johnson’s possible route back to power is more complex. He complains he’s been stitched up by a Parliamentary committee which wants him out as part of a political vendetta. But that committee has a Conservative majority; and its sanction can be challenged in the full House of Commons, where Conservatives again predominate. Johnson knows that he’s lost the confidence of most Conservative MPs.
It’s also entwined in a bitter rivalry with Sunak, whom Johnson blames for his eviction from office. That feud has been fuelled by an arcane but poisonous row about honours and political elevations that Johnson wanted to hand out to some of his political buddies. Johnson’s vitriolic statement standing down ‘for now’ from Parliament was laced with barbs against Sunak for failing to make the most of Britain’s departure from the European Union and repeatedly raising taxes. He raised a rebellious a rallying cry to his supporters: ‘We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government.’
The three Parliamentary by-elections in the UK in coming weeks will almost certainly underline how far the Labour opposition is ahead of the Conservatives in public standing. That in turn makes it more likely that Sunak will lose next year’s general election, and probably lose it badly.
Johnson’s tortuous political logic seems to be that the more he can discredit Sunak’s leadership, the greater the chance that the party (or the nation) will turn back to him to save it from melt-down. That seems vanishingly unlikely. But then so, once upon a time, did Brexit.
Andrew Whitehead is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK and a former BBC India Correspondent.
