A lot of Britons were conned by Boris Johnson. To my shame I was. But a lot of people including myself voted for him for various reasons, such as the alternative a Labour Party led by the Jew haters and terrorists friend Jeremy Corbyn, was beyond the pale but primarily in order to secure the Brexit that we voted for but which the political establishment wanted to thwart.

It was on the basis of Brexit and a promise to help those parts of Britain that had been both forgotten and abused by decades of both Labour and Conservative governments that a lot of people loaned their votes to the Tories in many cases for the first time in their lives. After nearly two years have passed since the 2019 General Election we can look back and see that although we’ve mostly got the Brexit that we voted for, we have been betrayed over so many other matters. On immigration and especially illegal immigration nothing has been done. We have not had our free speech rights, rights that have been decimated over the last twenty years by governments of both colours, returned, in fact this government looks to being one that is more not less censorious than others. The sort of aggressive political correctness that created police forces that were unable or unwilling to tackle child sexual abusers from certain ethnic minority groups is still there and still causing massive problems. Johnson’s government has also far from bringing industrial and manufacturing work back to the UK is actively hampering and destroying Britain’s industrial base with lunatic climate change policies. Boris Johnson’s government is a ‘pig in a poke’ government, a government that sold us one thing but has delivered something else, mostly stuff that we didn’t want or didn’t vote for.

For the promises that Boris Johnson made to the British people the voters were willing to forgive him a lot. They were prepared to forgive his very privileged background, his habit of cheating on his wives and partners and his often bumbling manner. He promised us a lot, we forgave him for a lot but he has delivered sod all.

But now the people who were once very close to Boris Johnson are now coming out and speaking about his record in government. One of the most surprising voices that have come out to say that Boris Johnson has failed is one of his ex partners, Petronella ‘Petsy’ Wyatt the daughter of former Labour minister and newspaper columnist the late Lord Woodrow Wyatt of Weeford.

In an attack on Boris Johnson that I can only really describe as blistering, Ms Wyatt has given her opinion in the Sun newspaper of the current sleaze scandals. She said that if any thing will bring down Boris Johnson it will not be any of the numerous sexual scandals that surround him but instead it will be sleaze.

Ms Wyatt said:

I ALWAYS thought it would be sleaze, not sex, that would be Boris Johnson’s downfall.

Unless he quickly pulls himself together, what began as the Owen Paterson affair may be duly marked by historians as the moment my old friend descended too deeply into the mud of the political crossroads.

That’s a fair comment. Sexually we knew what we were getting when it came to Boris Johnson. We knew that here was a man who struggled with monogamy but because he seemed to be the best person for the Brexit job we put aside that old warning that a politician that cheats on his wife will end up cheating on his country. Maybe we should have listened to that warning? The electorate cut Boris Johnson a lot of slack when it came to his convoluted personal life which included multiple marriages, affairs and non marital partners. Ms Wyatt is correct that the numerous sex scandals around Boris Johnson may not be his downfall but the sleaze might. For the record I have a certain amount of sympathy for Owen Paterson, he doesn’t appeared to have got his case dealt with in a timely manner and may not have had a proper chance to defend himself. But how Boris Johnson has dealt with this issue and the rising tide of sleaze that is bubbling up around his administration is a different matter. He and his government have handled this issue badly and rather than calming it down has made it worse.

Ms Wyatt continued:

The best argument his supporters can dredge up (and it is one I have used myself) is to the general effect that his misjudgments should be excused by his earnestness — that underneath his clowning, is the zeal of a steadfast soul.

The Boris of yore, though he often bemoaned to me the constraints of democracy, appeared to accept that we no longer inhabited a country of robber barons, of which he intended to be chief, merrily creating his personal fiefdom.

The trouble is not that Boris has changed so unutterably, but that there is no one inside No10 or his inner circle to constrain his excesses.

No Prime Minister can survive repeated attacks of the dreaded sleaze, the mystery disease which can cause the premature death of entire governments. Boris’s personal approval rating has dropped to minus 20, and his condition remains grave.

Boris Johnson is indeed a driven man but he’s also a bit of a wonky wheeled shopping trolley wobbling this way and that depending on who is advising him and as Ms Wyatt said anybody who could say ‘no’ to him has gone from his personal circle and his political circle. There are few elder statesmen around him either from the political sphere or from the civil service who can give him good advice or more importantly keep him on task and not let his more questionable and authoritarian views take precedence.

Ms Wyatt then went onto describe the old Boris Johnson as ‘political gold’ who could garner votes from both Tories and Labour supporters alike. I remember him when he was Mayor of Greater London and how he was genuinely popular even among those who didn’t like his party. He was certainly much better at that role than the truly appalling present incumbent Sadiq Khan. But that Boris of old, the Boris who knew his limitations and delegated a lot of work down to deputy mayors who had some degree of competence in what they did, is long gone. In its place is an authoritarian who has lost touch with the people who elected him to rule.

Ms Wyatt added:

Whilst not being the man on the Clapham Omnibus, he seemed to know precisely what that man and woman were thinking. We must ask ourselves, what has gone so calamitously wrong? The latest opinion polls indicate that a majority of the public believe Mr Johnson is leading the most corrupt and out-of-touch government in 40 years.

I think that this is a devastating but fair assessment of the current Conservative or should I say conservative in name only government. Ms Wyatt told us how that when she met Boris Johnson he was a man who surrounded himself with those who were his inferiors, people who would hang onto every word he said and were ‘mediocre’. Ms Wyatt said and it’s something which I agree with her on, that only people who are insecure surround themselves with those who are ones inferiors, but this is what Boris Johnson has done not just when he was a journalist, but also as Prime Minister where he has surrounded himself with a cabinet of non-entities. It’s telling that the only ‘big beast’ that is in Johnson’s cabinet is Michael Gove and even then it is a person who is not that popular with the public and is about as trustworthy as a slippery eel covered in Vaseline.

Ms Wyatt added that Boris Johnson has already more than likely lost the former Red Wall seats of the North. Those who voted for him and loaned the Tories their votes in 2019 will, because of sleaze and what Ms Wyatt called ‘elitist greenery’ probably not vote for him again.

Ms Wyatt said:

As George Bush Sr used to remark, the Prime Minister needs to rediscover “the vision thing”. The voters cannot live on the mouldy scraps of Brexit. Nor will imposing electric cars along the length of the Northern Wall prove political gold.

Were Boris to remember the fundamentals of the successful statesman, he would jettison his elitist greenery and nail his mast to the populist blue of “levelling up”, which was a cogent, and kinder interpretation of Thatcherism.

Boris Johnson has a vision but it does not seem to be one shared by the people. The people are starting to get an inkling of what net zero will cost them,not just in money, but in quality of life and in freedoms. As Brexit settles down and people see that it has created successes such as with the Covid vaccine commissioning and roll out, people will ask ‘what will Boris Johnson do for me except make me poorer, more cold and less free?’

I believe that Ms Wyatt is correct. The sleaze could well bring down Boris Johnson. It might not have done so for another person in the office of Prime Minister, someone who was more politically able and less arrogant, but Boris Johnson is neither as politically astute as he used to be, more arrogant than he used to be and his dishonesty, not just in his relationships but in other areas, is being exposed, examined and mocked.

Many people voted for Boris Johnson because they thought that in the big things like Brexit, culture and rebuilding Britain’s industrial economy he was on the side of Britons. Sadly apart from Brexit we can see that he is not. I voted for Boris Johnson in 2019. I will not be voting for Boris Johnson in 2024.

When someone who has been or who has tried to be on the side of Boris Johnson as Petronella Wyatt has been in the past turns against Boris, then it’s right to ask ‘is it game over for Boris Johnson’?