Boris: it’s his policies not personal life that matter

Another day, another Boris Johnson news fest. Once again he’s all over the place – newspapers, websites, twitter streams and all the rest of it. It seems there is no escaping him.

This time, however, the story is about his personal life. He and his wife Marina, a very able lawyer, have decided after 25 years of marriage to go their separate ways and are divorcing. This is sad for them, sad for their children, sad for their wider families, and absolutely nothing to do with the rest of us. The fact that he wants to be Prime Minister and is engaged in a big argument with the actual Prime Minister on the biggest political issue of the day is not – or should not be – the excuse for us to examine his marriage. His stance on Brexit is where our focus should be – and this is where the political problem is.

With some panache Boris seized the leadership of Brexit campaign. From under the nose of Nigel Farage and numerous Tory parliamentary colleagues, most of whom had toiled long years in the unrewarding vineyard of Euroscepticism, Boris emerged as the credible and popular face of Brexit.

Many of his colleagues have never really forgiven him, but the referendum was exactly the sort of campaign that suited him – personality orientated, unstructured, boisterous, spontaneous. He dominated the referendum campaign and led his team mates to a victory which might not have been achieved without him. Having seized his moment he seemed on an unstoppable roll to No 10.

This, though, is where the problem about Boris’s campaign for the leadership came into, and remains, in sharp relief. There is no Boris vision for Britain, no post Brexit plan, no sense of a domestic policy agenda. There was a huge opportunity during his stint at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to demonstrate what a Boris supremacy would look like, but the result has been to add to and not resolve the doubts about him in the top job.

No-one doubts he has the intellectual clout, the charisma, the charm, the chutzpah, to reach for the top job. But Westminster politics and national leadership requires additional qualities too – resilience, resolve, a sense of direction, the ability to build and lead a team, some sense of direction, coherence and purpose. Yesterday, today, tomorrow and until and unless he systematically sets about demonstrating he can acquire these qualities, Boris, has a problem as a credible contender for national leadership. But he should be scrutinised on these things – and these things alone.