Politics

Boris as Foreign Sec? An astute political move

What might Theresa May have been thinking?

July 14, 2016
Placeholder image!

Boris Johnson, our new Foreign Secretary, is far from universally popular. The evidence bears this out.

In response to Johnson's appointment to Theresa May's Cabinet yesterday, the French Foreign Minister called him “a liar with his back to the wall” and said that his appointment to the post was “a sign of the British political crisis that has come out of the referendum vote.” The German Foreign Minister said it was “monstrous” that Johnson spent the day after Britain’s vote to leave the EU playing cricket. The former Prime Minister of Sweden tweeted “I wish it was a joke.”

British commentators have, for the most part, shared in the indignation. One article in the Independent announces “Boris Johnson is bad for the world.” Labour MP for Cardiff Kenneth Brennan argued that May has made “the most remarkable appointment since Caligula made his horse a senator,” and the list goes on. But was the move by our new Prime Minister really so misguided?

I would argue that, in fact, the move was politically astute—for the following reasons. Plausibly, the last thing Theresa May wanted was her biggest rival for the Conservative leadership sitting bored and, crucially, unoccupied on the backbenches. Were this to have happened, Johnson could have made himself a real nuisance, criticizing the government’s response to Brexit and stoking up anger among Eurosceptic backbenchers if, for example, the Government was slow to invoke Article 50, or was unable to secure a good deal from the European Union once it had invoked it. Perhaps he would have written about it in his Telegraph column. That would have given May a real headache.

No, it is, I would argue, much better for May to pull him into government. She has done this by offering him a position so prestigious he cannot possibly refuse—but which also has very little to do with Brexit. (David Davis has been appointed Secretary of State for Brexit, and so it is he who will do the heavy lifting there.) Johnson will now spend the years leading up to the next general election busy, and he will frequently be abroad.

He is also unlikely to continue writing his Telegraph column—there is no precedent for a Cabinet minister working for a national newspaper while still in government. And while in the Cabinet, Johnson must adhere to strict ethos of collective responsibility that comes with that. Of course, no one can be certain what May had in mind when she appointed Johnson—but he is now rather out of the way. Given that he is arguably the one person who could beat May in a leadership contest, she probably won’t be too upset about that.