London, United Kingdom – The elusive favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister emerged unscathed from a television debate that failed to scrutinise his pledge to take the UK out of the European Union without a Brexit deal – despite refusing to take part.
Boris Johnson – who was “empty chaired” in the Channel 4 programme – risked coming under sustained fire from five rivals seeking to lead the ruling Conservative Party and hence become Britain’s next leader.
While rank outsider Rory Stewart – who has mounted a credible challenge to Johnson by advocating a more moderate Brexit position – scored well with the audience.
But Britain’s next prime minister will be decided by the Conservative members of parliament (MPs).
An ongoing theme in the press has been that Johnson – a highly paid newspaper columnist whose florid language often gets him into trouble – retains the potential to ruin his own chances.
His five rivals in the C4 debate – the first in a contest set to conclude in July – largely refrained from attacking him in his absence, saving their animosity for the Labour Party opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Only Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt – seen as one of the likeliest eventual challengers as the field is narrowed down to two candidates to be put to a vote of Conservative Party members – went on the attack.
“We have been talking about Brexit for 25 minutes and where is Boris?” asked Hunt.
“If he can’t join this team with five colleagues, how is he going to fare with 27 European countries? He should be here to answer that question.”
Dr Simon Usherwood, Reader in politics at the University of Surrey and Deputy Director of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said, the debate was not a “game changer” and Johnson’s absence left one with a “ghost at the feast feeling”.
A former foreign secretary who resigned in protest at the Brexit deal reached with the EU by Prime Minister Theresa May, Johnson won 114 MPs’ votes in the first round of voting last week, giving him a commanding lead in the race to succeed her.
However, observers will be watching carefully how he fares in a debate on the state broadcaster BBC scheduled for Tuesday – after at least one of last night’s candidates is eliminated.
Dr David Jeffery, a lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool who has studied the Conservative Party, said: “The only real question is: will Boris ruin his chances in the next debate?”
Mike Bird, the Conservative leader of Walsall council – a region in the West Midlands that voted heavily for Brexit – said: “I don’t think he will win: he was the man who was going to lose this election rather than win it.
“Boris has got great charisma. People on the street love him. But conversely there are those in government and local government who say he keeps dropping the ball.”
Raab under attack
Hardline Brexiter Dominic Raab – a former Brexit secretary – came under sustained attack for hints last week that whoever becomes the next prime minister could suspend parliament to force through a “no deal” Brexit, which economists say would be disastrous.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid, one of the contenders in the race, told the audience: “We are not selecting a dictator of our country, we are selecting a prime minister of one of the proudest parliamentary democracies in the world.”
Environment Secretary Michael Gove – whose chances have been overshadowed by an admission that he took cocaine – piled further pressure on Raab.
“One of the reasons why I argued why we should leave the European Union was to make our parliament stronger, to reinvigorate our democracy,” he said.
“It would be a terrible thing that, having said that we should have more power in this country and trust our institutions more, we did as Dominic Raab seems to be implying and shut the doors on parliament.”
Stewart – the international development secretary and a popular writer – has made an overt appeal to the centre ground against a no deal Brexit.
He told the audience: “One of the reasons why I absolutely want to reject this push for no deal Brexit and I absolutely want to reject the politics of Corbyn is that I think the energy in this country is in the centre-ground, with pragmatism, with compromise.”
Usherwood, said that although Stewart “had some good lines, “that’s still going to have more of an impact with the public at large rather than MPs – who are not likely to have seen anything that is going to change their minds.”
Jeffery added that Stewart delivered some punchy lines, “but he is still trailing massively in MPs nominations and latest polling still has him trailing far behind Boris – so I don’t think it’s changed the narrative.”
Bird, a supporter of Raab’s Brexit position, said Gove came across as a “man of experience” and was set to go head to head with Hunt.
“I have said from Day 1 that I think Raab has got a lot to offer and he would have been my choice – having said that Michael Gove does come across as the man of greater experience, but we could see Raab narrowing that gap.”
The Farage factor
The other absent elephant in the room in the C4 debate was the maverick politician Nigel Farage, whose new Brexit Party – the big winner in European elections in May – poses a serious threat to the Conservative Party.
Stewart has insisted that he would include Farage in talks to resolve the Brexit impasse that has paralysed British politics, but other candidates insist it would not be wise to “out Brexit the Brexit Party”.
Hunt told the audience: “I think all of us agree that the only way to deal with the Brexit Party is to deliver Brexit. But you don’t beat the Brexit Party by becoming the Brexit Party.”
Bird told Al Jazeera: “As far as I am concerned Farage is a one trick pony. Jeremy Hunt made the point: the answer to Nigel Farage is to deliver Brexit. Talking to Farage like Stewart has is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”
Jeffery added that evidence from the European continent showed that centre-left parties which aim to match the rhetoric and policy positions of radical right populist movements merely end up emboldening them.
“The difference here is that the Brexit Party spans the ideological spectrum with one unifying image, which is to deliver Brexit.
“If you deliver Brexit it will take the wind out of the Brexit Party’s sails.”
from Viral up Blog http://bit.ly/2RjyYnw
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