Cast your minds back to June 2019. Theresa May had resigned, having failed to get her EU withdrawal deal through a mutinous parliament, and the Conservatives were in the middle of choosing a new leader. They had been thrashed in the previous month’s local elections. Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party were resurgent, and there was a very real possibility of Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn winning a looming general election.
The Times then published an article from three of the Conservatives’ rising stars. The party and the country were in terrible danger, the trio warned. Boris Johnson alone “commands the instant credibility needed to achieve support for a renegotiated deal amongst a suspicious public let down by delays and defeat”. Beyond Brexit, they gushed, Johnson “is one of life’s optimists and can help us recapture a sense of excitement and hope about what we Conservatives can do for Britain”. He was a “proven winner” who would “build a strong team around him to deliver for our country”.
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