The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson (2024) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1
Morning.
How are you? Morning,
morning, morning. Thanks, guys.
Good morning, how
are you? You all right?
Nice to see you too. Very well.
Good to see you, how are you?
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Have a good one. And you.
All right, don't forget. Definitely.
Take back control.
You're on the right side.
It's June 2016
..Boris is running the Vote
Leave Brexit campaign.
He doesn't think
he's going to win,
but even losing could help him get
closer to becoming Prime Minister.
I suppose all
politicians in the end
are like kind of crazed
wasps in a jam jar,
each individually convinced
that they're gonna make it.
You've been more or
less programmed that way.
My silicon chip, my ambition
silicon chip, has been programmed to
try to scrabble my way
up this cursus honorum,
you know, this ladder of things.
And so you do feel a
kind of sense you've got to.
Morning, everybody,
are you all right?
We want to get the bus in.
We need to get the bus in.
Cameras, can we all
take a step back please?
I want to I want
to talk to the crowd.
I want to talk to everybody
here. I want talk to I'm on that.
Can I just talk to
everybody here?
Good morning everybody,
can you hear me?
CROWD: Yes!
Folks, this is a once in a lifetime,
unrepeatable opportunity for us
to take back control
of our country.
Do you think we
could do it? Yes!
Meanwhile, a psychological
drama is playing out
inside the Johnson family.
Both his brother Jo and his
sister Rachel oppose Brexit,
and are campaigning for Remain.
I've thought about this,
and it's been hard for me,
but I think that we
are better in, you know.
And I don't want
to cast us adrift.
Well, it's divided us all
and it has divided the family,
but mainly into members
who think that Brexit is
a shit idea and those who
think it's a really shit idea.
Hey, what a tremendous
joy it is to be here today.
When I look out His father,
Stanley, now tours the country in
a Remain T-shirt
campaigning against his son.
What is the word you've been
hearing from the other side?
Take control. Well, my
message today is, yes,
stay in and take control.
Vote to remain. Vote to remain.
I remember Rachel
Johnson once described
the Brexit debate in their family
as a kind of Oedipal struggle.
Because of course Stanley
Johnson had been an MEP,
this staunch pro-European,
great Europhile.
And then Boris Johnson
tried to destroy all of that
and became the most high-profile
figurehead for the Brexit campaign.
One member of Boris' family
who plans to support him
is his mother, Charlotte.
She is voting leave out
of loyalty to her first-born.
Meanwhile, the Prime
Minister, David Cameron,
Boris' political rival,
has gambled everything on
winning the referendum for Remain.
APPLAUSE
Thank you. This
choice about Europe,
it is a choice for a generation.
Do we stay in, or do we go?
Now I'm very clear that
the best answer is to stay in.
To help him take on the
Prime Minister, Boris is joined on
the Vote Leave bus
by Michael Gove.
Ladies and gentlemen,
friends, colleagues.
Gove was demoted by
Cameron and so, like Boris,
has a motive to take
on the Prime Minister.
And it's fantastic to be
here with just three weeks
to go before the referendum
and the chance to take
back our independence.
Gove's then wife, Sarah,
remembers him making the decision.
Michael and Boris were having
lots of conversations
about Brexit
..and everything
was so feverish.
I mean, lots of people
said, "Don't do this,"
because they just thought
it's a massive can of worms
and nothing good
will ever come of it.
But I think in my
heart of hearts,
I always knew Michael
would go for Leave.
Um, just because that was
politically where he
always stood, really.
Boris and Michael,
they always just got
on really quite well.
And the thing is, is that
when youare in politics,
your friendships
really sustain you
because it's a really
tough environment to be in.
And I think that
they were sort of on
the same page politically,
and, of course, they
were both journalists.
Thank you. Thank you.
Both Michael and Boris have
that journalistic instinct for
a good story, how
to package an idea.
I think Boris is very good
at that and so is Michael.
To fully understand the
psychology of this situation,
one has to go back to
Oxford University, 1985
..where Boris Johnson,
Michael Gove,
and David Cameron
are all studying.
Honourable members wishing
debate in favour of the motion
will occupy the
benches on my right.
Honourable members
voting against the motion
will sit on the
benches on my left.
There being 167 votes
in favour of the motion
and 85 against.
I declare the motion
overwhelmingly carried
and I close the
house at 12.18am.
Boris has a clear ambition
to become president
of the Oxford Union,
something his father
attempted but never achieved.
Many presidents of the union
have gone on to be Prime Minister.
I first met Boris
at Oxford in 1983
where we were
exact contemporaries.
I think the first time I
met him socially was
at the Cheese and Wine
Appreciation Society.
He was this kind of
biggest man on campus.
The local celebrity.
I was quite pleased that
he remembered my name.
IMITATING BORIS: Hey,
Toby, Toby, Toby, Toby, Toby!
And it's all kind of big and
kind of dramatic and theatrical.
Um, but after that,
then he'll move on
and start talking to
someone else in exactly
the same way. And sort of,
you know, work around the room.
But often with a
kind of phalanx,
like a close protection
unit, you know, around him.
Almost like a politician
even back then.
Boris then joins the
infamous Bullingdon Club,
an all-male elite society.
Draped confidently
across the college steps,
he wears the club's
traditional outfit
..and once again bumps
into his old Etonian pal,
David Cameron.
To help him become
president of the Union,
Boris recruits a working
class student from Aberdeen,
Michael Gove.
So, I'm going to satisfy
your right to know. LAUGHTER
I'm going to let you know
what's underneath my kilt.
Now, if you just bear with
me, ladies and gentlemen,
ordinarily people have
to pay for this pleasure.
And I haveunderneath my kilt
a pair of Oxford Union
Boxer shorts. LAUGHTER
Another member
of the Boris cult,
one of his kind of foot soldiers
in his kind of political
campaign was Michael Gove.
Gove said his first
impression of Boris was that of
a basking shark waiting for
students to swim towards him.
He was two years below
Boris, very confident,
a slightly odd-looking
young man.
You continually want
to get to the centre,
the core of my private life,
and you'll never get to the
hard core of my private life.
And I recognise the
honourable gentleman.
And he was very
articulate and quick witted.
Boris was the kind of,
you know, Mafia boss,
and me and Gove were just
members of his kind of crew,
we were trying to kind of marshal
the votes for Boris back then.
He was actually much
better at it than me.
He was, obviously, a natural
politician in a way that I wasn't.
With Gove's support,
Boris is victorious.
Exactly 30 years later,
and whilst Michael plots the Leave
campaign at the back of the bus
Boris, Boris, Boris, Boris!
..Boris is once
again the front man.
Ketchup with your pasty?
Oh, my God, it's a pasty.
The pasty of independence.
As voting day draws closer,
Remain is still
predicted to win.
But the polls are narrowing,
and Boris is beginning
to catch up with his old
rival, David Cameron.
SARAH VINE: I remember him
shouting at me at a birthday party.
Dave said to me, you know,
"I am fighting for my
political career here."
I think that he didn't factor
in the Michael-Boris combo,
which was sort of
explosive, really.
This whole debate
is about democracy!
CHEERS It's our
ability to speak out.
And we won't be
drowned out, will we?
No!
I think the real low
point of the campaign
for David Cameron was
a Saturday afternoon where
I called him up and said,
"Tomorrow's Sunday
Time is gonna have
"a letter from Boris
Johnson and Michael Gove,
"which is basically
criticising you on immigration."
And I remember
when I first told him that
the line went dead
and a few minutes later
he called me back and said,
"Look, I'm really sorry.
"The reason I put the
phone down was I'm just
"so angry that they know that
I've been desperately trying
"to control immigration.
They're questioning my integrity.
"And I cannot
believe that two people
"who professed
to be my friends,"
one of whom that was
godfather to one of his children,
"that they were willing to
go that far in order to win."
Don't go and vote on
the basis of things you're
being told that aren't true.
So, let's get out there
and vote Remain tomorrow,
Thursday. Go for it.
Thank you! APPLAUSE
Do you think they've
won? No, they haven't.
Can we go forward to
victory on June the 23rd?
Yes. And do we
believe in this country
and what you can see?
Yes, we do, don't we?
APPLAUSE
LOUD CHEERING
When the polls closed,
I sank into a total
deep depression.
LAUGHING: I don't know why!
I'd been wildly
optimistic the day before,
but I convinced myself
we were going to lose.
And I was in a pretty
miserable mood,
I think, really up until
the Sunderland result
and suddenly
Sunderland, I think, "Crikey!
"Wow! We're in
with a chance here."
So, of course, you know,
I was up through the night,
and at about ten past four I
gave a speech on the South Bank.
A new dawn! A new dawn!
An independent United
Kingdom, how about that?
CHEERING
Four hours later, the
Prime Minister is gone.
I'm very proud and very honoured
to have been Prime Minister
of this country for six years.
But the British people have
made a very clear decision
to take a different
path, and as such,
I think the country
requires fresh leadership
to take it in this direction.
It was a huge moment.
Funny thing was
..Boris Johnson and Michael
Gove didn't wait for the result,
they went to bed.
And when they woke
up the next morning
and left their front
doors, they looked,
they didn't look joyous,
they looked flustered as if,
"Oh, God, what have we done?"
They never really wanted to win.
They never really wanted to win.
Whilst Cameron is resigning,
Boris is at home
with one of his closest
advisers, Will Walden.
I remember watching
him when Dave resigned,
dressed in a Brazilian football
shirt and ill-matching shorts.
And he just was shaking
his head. He was like,
well, you know, "what
have we done? Poor Sam.
"It's dreadful. Look
at that poor woman.
"I mean, having to go through
this." You know, "Poor Dave."
Totally Boris, totally mixed up,
totally confused by, you
know, what had been done.
Genuinely worried
about the outcome.
And then I think
the crucial thing
for him was what then
happened as we left the house.
CROWD BOOS
We'd never had police in the
house before. It was chaos.
And I remember at that moment
when Boris dived into the car,
he looked pretty scared.
These people, a
lot of them young,
they thought that Boris had
stripped their future away.
I remember
zipping off in the car
and there's a light at the end
of their road and it was green.
And I said, "If it
changes to orange,
"bust the light. I'll pay
the ticket if you get it."
I just said, "Just drive through
it." It changed to orange,
went to red, he slammed on the
brakes. And I thought, "Oh, God."
CROWD BOO
CAR HONKS HORN
Come on, Boris!
But I think at that
moment he realised
the effect of his
part in the campaign.
In Boris' mind there
was suddenly a kind of,
"What's the plan?
We haven't got a plan,
"we never thought
we were going to win."
It's 11am and the
country is looking to Boris
and Michael Gove
for what happens next.
SCATTERED APPLAUSE
And we ended up at Vote Leave.
He wrote a speech which
was pretty lacklustre, I think,
by Boris' own standards,
partly because they,
they were shocked themselves.
APPLAUSE
Thank you very much. And I
want to begin this morning by
paying tribute to David Cameron,
who has spoken earlier
from Downing Street.
I've known David Cameron
for a very long time,
and I believe he's been one of
the most extraordinary
politicians of our age.
The whole press conference
didn't look Prime Ministerial,
it didn't look like
they were in charge.
There was a reality and a dawning
of kind of who's going to do this.
And with Cameron resigning,
suddenly the plan
was in Boris' hands.
And I think for Boris that changed
everything for that moment.
CROWD: There is no plan,
there is no plan, there is no plan!
The challenge now
will be uniting a country
divided by this referendum.
The pound and shares
in British companies
have already spiralled
down. It is unprecedented stuff.
BROKERS SHOU
Within a day
news of Brexit wipes $2 trillion
off the value of shares on
the global stock market
..and protests spring
up across the country.
Tories out! Tories out!
Tories out! Tories out!
Are you taking control, Boris?
But Boris Johnson
is now the favourite,
and within touching distance
of becoming Prime Minister.
You lost, but your boy
won. How does that feel?
STANLEY JOHNSON: So,
it means a win-win situation.
Had a text from him What
does he say? ..just a second ago.
"Hey, hey, hey, hope
all well, lots of love."
I regard that as
being a positive sign.
Would you like him to run?
I think I explained that
he has to be a candidate
and I think it'd
be totally normal
for a man who's made
the effort he has made
..to derail Europe. Sorry,
that was a silly joke. That's a
Do you think that's what
he's done? That's a total joke.
And not to be taken seriously.
Boris has dreamed of becoming
Prime Minister for decades.
The seeds of that
ambition, some say,
lie in Boris' relationship
with his mother.
Boris clearly adores his mother.
I think he quite modelled
himself upon her.
And I think they
were rather similar.
Quick, intelligent,
humorous and good natured.
I mean, his
childhood wasn't easy.
He witnessed quite a lot,
somemarital, you know, discord,
which is not nice for any child.
So, naturally, she
was worried about him
because she said to me
that he was very vulnerable.
When Boris is ten
and living in Brussels,
his childhood is
thrown into disarray.
His mother, Charlotte,
leaves suddenly for London.
She has been admitted
to a psychiatric hospital
after suffering a
nervous breakdown.
She's a painter
and she did some
horrendous pictures there,
a lot of pictures
of her children.
There was always a
slight undertone of
..darkness in her pictures.
Here's a picture of them
with tears all over the place.
When I was in hospital,
they grew very close to each other
and very protective of each other.
And Boris was always very
protective of the younger children.
As a boy, Boris
would tell people
that one day he
wanted to be world king.
I've often thought that his
being world king was a wish
to make himself
unhurtable, invincible,
somehow safe
from the pains of life.
The pains of your mother
disappearing for eight months.
The pains of your
parents splitting up.
And I think that's what
ultimately drove him into politics.
It wasn't about some political
mission or big ideological idea.
It was about power. In
order to protect himself.
Mr Johnson, any message of
reassurance for the country?
There are millions of
very scared voters at
the moment who are just looking
for a message from their leader.
Now within grasp of
realising his childhood dream,
Boris has just four days to
gather enough support from MPs.
None of these countries can
handle the uncertainty, can they?
Hi, hello, hello,
very nice to see you.
To run his campaign, yet
again, he chooses Michael Gove.
See you later.
SARAH VINE: They'd all been
summoned to Boris' house in
the countryside to go and
have kind of top-level talks
about what was going
to be happening next.
And they sort of
They sort of arrived
to a sort of bacchanalian scene.
There was sort of a barbecue
and there was red wine
and lots of drinking
and partying.
And, you know, Michael
felt we're not celebrating here.
You know, this is a really
serious thing that's happened.
This is not a time
to have a party.
And Boris' response was,
"Hooray, I've won a thing!"
And so Michael went sort
of full Presbyterian Scot
and Boris went sort
of full Bullingdon.
Boris returns to
London to secure votes.
Are you well? Nice to see you.
You've had a good day?
Take care, night-night.
We look forward to the
comments tomorrow.
Leadership too though, yes?
Convinced he has
enough support to win,
Boris is ready to
launch his campaign.
They'd come back from this party
and Michael just
was ashen faced.
He just walked in
through the door, he said,
"I just don't think
Boris is up to this.
"I just don't think
he's up to it."
That was what threw Michael
and made him think
whether or not Boris was
going to be able to take
the job seriously enough.
I remember that I was
travelling on the Tube
to go and get Boris to
do the campaign launch.
And I had a text on my
phone appeared from one
of Boris' senior aides and
it just said, "Effing Gove."
Bit of a dig at Eton-educated
Boris Johnson from
the state-school-educated
Home Secretary.
Tom, Tom, Tom, I'm
really sorry to interrupt.
We're just hearing that
Michael Gove is preparing
to announce his
candidacy as well.
I got off the Tube, rang Boris,
who'd been in the shower apparently
when Gove had tried to call him.
Got to the house and Boris was,
he was utterly crestfallen.
He could not believe
that this had happened
after all they'd shared on
the referendum campaign.
He basically just kept
shaking his head just going,
"Why, why, why?"
And then there was
the whole point that we had to get
him to the campaign headquarters
to decide what he was gonna do.
Mr Johnson, what's your
message for Michael Gove?
What's your message
for Michael Gove?
No, move out of the way, please.
Will this harm your
campaign, Mr Johnson?
Move out of the way. Will this
harm your campaign, Mr Johnson?
What's your message
to Michael Gove?
Can I get my wife in?
Come on. Sorry, go on.
You're not fit to run a bath!
Thank you. Sir,
this way, please, sir.
What's your message for
Michael Gove, Mr Johnson?
Good morning, everybody,
have a great day, everybody,
have a good one.
Nice to see you.
Jesus Christ!
He's coming!
We've got some news
coming through to you.
The Justice Secretary
Michael Gove will stand for
the Conservative leadership
and the Prime Ministership.
I stand here
and I'm standing
for the leadership,
not as a result of calculation,
certainly not as a
result of calculation.
I'm standing cos I have a burning
desire to transform our country.
Your assassination of Boris
Johnson, if I could put it that way,
has cost you quite
a lot in kindness
and respect among your
colleagues. You'll know that.
Can you possibly
recover from that?
If you're the sort of person
who worries about
personal criticism,
if you're the sort of
person who allows
the attacks from others
to get under your skin,
you shouldn't be leader.
Wow! I mean I'm still picking
my jaw up off the ground.
This is Michael Gove
plunging a dagger into the back,
front, side, head
of Boris Johnson.
Raising, basically,
questions about his character,
his credibility.
But the really
damaging part of this
is he may well have kiboshed
Boris Johnson's
leadership ambitions.
Boris, has Michael
Gove betrayed you?
No, no, no, no.
Has Michael Gove,
your friend, let you down?
He says he doesn't trust
you, how do you deal with that?
Come and have a Let's
have it, let's have, come in here.
Now Boris has a
big decision to make.
Should he still run to be
Prime Minister and risk losing?
What do you make of
Michael Gove's intervention?
I'm here to back Boris,
so I'm not talking about
any other candidates.
Or step down and wait
for a better moment?
The problem with that is
it would be letting down all
the MPs who have
publicly backed him,
betting their careers
on his success.
Immediately you just go into
the mode of kind of,
"How are we gonna do this?
"Is he gonna stand?"
There was an argument that,
you know, Boris was
the great campaigner,
he could turn this around.
The truth is he'd lost 60 MPs.
I think it was going to be
very difficult for him to win.
I was the first MP ever to write
a public article saying
that he was our witty winner.
I wrote that in 2012.
It's blindingly
obvious, even then,
this person is going to
be the next Prime Minister.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Good morning,
everybody, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, everybody.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone,
can we
APPLAUSE CONTINUES
Thank you very much, everybody,
for coming along this morning,
and great to see so
many people here.
It is vital now to see
this moment for what it is.
It is not a crisis.
This is not a time for
wobbling or self-doubt.
But as a moment for hope
and ambition for Britain.
Suddenly I realised that
there was a point in the speech,
and I was thinking, "Hang on!"
He'd just written the
speech before he went in,
but I'd seen an
earlier draft and I said,
"You're not supposed
to be saying that."
That is the agenda for the next
Prime Minister of this country.
But I must tell you, my friends,
you who have
waited faithfully for
the punch line of this speech,
I have concluded that
person cannot be me.
Thank you all very
much. Thank you.
APPLAUSE
Boris, do you feel betrayed?
I got in the car with him,
and we headed to
their home in Islington.
And within 15
minutes of that journey,
he looked at me and he said,
"I made the wrong decision.
"Should have never
have backed out."
APPLAUSE
In July 2016, Theresa
May becomes Prime Minister
and Boris is out in the cold.
Do we have a plan
for Brexit? We do.
Are we ready for
the effort it will take?
We are.
Can Boris Johnson stay on
message for a full four days?
LAUGHTER
LAUGHTER
Just about? Religiously.
LAUGHTER
SPEECH DROWNED BY APPLAUSE
You know, Boris is an
incredibly competitive person.
I remember his sister,
Rachel, telling me a story that,
when I think she was
four and Boris was five,
it was her birthday party
and she got up on the
table to make a speech.
Boris became so incensed
that she was momentarily
the centre of attention,
that he leapt up on the table
and threw her off the table
and then started
making a speech himself.
You know, absolute
yearning for the spotlight.
In this tricky new
world for Boris,
he's waiting to know
what boat he'll be in.
Will she let him stew
on the back benches
or give him a job
in the cabinet?
I can remember sitting
with Boris here in Parliament.
I said, "What you doing,
mate?" And he said,
"Well, I'm Googling
government departments
"to find out which
departments have
"a bigger budget than London,
because if I got offered a job,
"I wouldn't want to take a
job where there was less
"responsibility than
being Mayor of London."
And, while I was there,
the phone rang, and
it was Theresa May.
I think his view was he was
gonna be kind of minister
for paper clips, if anything,
and should he accept that job?
REPORTERS SHOUT QUESTIONS
But I think he didn't
expect what then happened.
I think he might have rung
and he, he was just like,
"I'm the effing
Foreign Secretary."
Theresa May has
shocked the world
by appointing Boris Johnson
as her Foreign Secretary.
He's not exactly seen
as a safe pair of hands.
He's entertaining,
but hardly diplomatic.
Foreign Secretary has just been
announced as Boris Johnson.
World leaders thought
he was a buffoon.
The State Department
official brief,
he laughed cos he
didn't think it was true.
But he's nothing if
not the great survivor.
And he just thought, "Well,
I'm gonna prove them wrong."
Hi, there. Foreign Secretary.
Boris will be working
with Sir Simon McDonald,
the foreign office's most
experienced diplomat.
Your principal
private secretary.
Hi.
I'm Simon. You're
Simon, yes, how are you?
I'm very well.
He was clearly a
different sort of politician.
He was more relaxed,
he was very confident,
and he was more quirky.
And so, a big personality means
the possibility of big surprises.
And I didn't know
what they would be,
but I had worked out that
professional life
would be interesting.
Foreign Secretary, four months
ago you wrote a poem that described
the president of
Turkey as a wankerer.
Are you going to apologise?
You've accused the current
US President, Barack Obama,
of harbouring a
part Kenyan's, quote,
"Ancestral dislike for
the British Empire."
You've described the possible
future US President Hillary Clinton
as someone with, quote,
"Dyed-blonde hair and pouty lips
"and a steely blue stare
like a sadistic nurse in
"a mental hospital,"
unquote. LAUGHTER
There is such a rich thesaurus
now of things that I've said,
uh, that it would
really take me too long,
uh, to engage in a
full, global itinerary
of apology to all concerned.
Our ambassador to
the EU in Brussels had
the privilege of going
to Oxford with Boris,
and he told me that
this man is a very smart
and capable man.
That's the Boris Johnson
I can live with that,
I can live with that.
..I have met and we intend to
make good things happen together.
Phew, just stop there,
that's fine. LAUGHTER
That's great. Thank
you. It's called diplomacy.
That's fantastic.
It's going well.
It's going well, John.
Thank you very much, phew.
One of the things that people
knew about Boris Johnson
was that he had ripe
opinions about foreigners.
So, this was something
we had to consider
because it was possible that
those groups would take offence.
And I remember very
early on discussing this.
And what I suggested to him was
that all of that had been in the past.
He'd been a journalist, he'd
been interested in selling copy.
And he looked at me and he said,
"Simon, yes, that's a good idea.
"And if we were talking
about anyone else,
"that would be a
reasonable idea.
"But we're talking about
me, and I won't change."
Boris's approach
has consequences.
He wrongly describes the work
of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
a British-Iranian
political prisoner,
and jeopardises her release.
Iranian state TV welcomed
your comments around
Nazanin as an unintended
confession. What do you say to that?
Do you have any
comments about that?
And when he visits Burma,
where a genocide is taking place,
he casually starts
quoting Kipling
and overshadows
the diplomatic mission.
Come you back,
you English soldier.
We never left.
Probably not a good idea.
What? The Road to Mandalay?
Yes, not appropriate.
There's a sense that Boris isn't
taking the job seriously enough.
What do you think, Andrew?
This is a great mystery
about who did it.
Nobody seems to
have seen it happen.
Well, they've had
three tours this week.
Well, I'll, I'll Anyway, it's
absolutely, tragic, isn't it?
Boris' view of being
Foreign Secretary
was that he was put in
an expensive cigar tube,
flown around the world
and kept out of touch with
British politics for a couple of years.
It was a very clever tactical
move by Theresa May.
Are you running away from
the big decisions again, Boris?
Mr Johnson, do you think
the Prime Minister can
deliver a Brexit deal?
Do you think?
A few minutes ago Downing
Street put out this statement,
"This afternoon the Prime
Minister accepted the resignation
"of Boris Johnson
as Foreign Secretary.
"The Prime Minister
thanked Boris for his work."
Well, a pretty short and curt
statement there from Number Ten.
Frustrated with Theresa
May's Brexit negotiations,
and his own political
ambitions being thwarted,
Boris shocks the
world by quitting,
throwing May's
government into turmoil.
Who is running the
country, Prime Minister?
CAR HONKS HORN
Boris is out of the cabinet
and returns to the back benches
to strategise his next move.
The Johnson I knew at
The Spectator started out as
a sort of liberal,
cosmopolitan figure.
And found that political
space kept on opening up
for him to the right.
The same thing was happening
across the Atlantic with Trump.
Populism, a new breed
of authoritarian populists.
Right-wing leaders.
There were votes to be found
in taking far-right positions.
This is all calculated,
I should think.
He knows it goes down very
well amongst Tory activists.
"They look like letterboxes,"
Boris Johnson wrote on Monday.
He even compared women
who wear them to bank robbers,
though he insisted
that, unlike some states,
Britain shouldn't ban the burqa.
Dominating everything
today is of course
the Boris burqa row.
The Guardian front page,
"Johnson should apologise
for offensive burqa remarks."
The Times, "May calls
on Johnson to apologise
"for burqa letterbox remark."
The Mirror, "Spineless."
Boris Johnson is probably sitting
at home with a glass of whisky,
watching this, quite happy
that he's being talked about.
Ban Boris, what happened to
freedom of speech in this country?
You know, he's actually done this
because he wants to get elected.
This is what he's done to pander
to the extreme right of the party.
Racist remarks, Mr Speaker, which
have led to a spike in hate crime.
Mr Johnson, would you
apologise for your comment?
Will you have a cup of tea?
Would you like a cup of tea?
If I have a cup of tea, will
you answer my question?
No, no, I'm at I'm here
solely on a humanitarian mission
cos you've been here all day.
And you've been incredibly
patient and incredibly,
and I feel very sorry for
you cos I have nothing
to say about this matter
except to offer you some tea.
LAUGHING: OK. OK. Go on.
OK, thank you. Thank
you so much. Go on.
When you're finished
with it, bring it back.
Thank you. No
worries, take care.
People say, oh, politicians
should be careful what they say,
and they should watch their words
and all this sort of mumbo jumbo.
I don't agree. I really don't.
Even if it's offensive? I
think one of the reasons
But even if it's
offensive, Mr Johnson?
I don't want to cause offence
if I can possibly avoid it.
Then don't refer to them as bank
robbers. Well, you know, I think
You just said you would again.
I think that one of the, uh
..duties of a politician is to
speak his mind or her mind
in so far as possible.
You're gonna need You're
gonna need to push back.
REPORTERS SHOUT QUESTIONS
Go through, go
through, go through.
MUSIC: I've Got the World
On A String by Frank Sinatra
It's been two and a half years
since Boris withdrew from the race
to become leader of
the Conservative Party.
Go through, go through.
Now, with new support
from right-wing MPs
and with Theresa May coming
under increasing scrutiny,
Boris starts to position himself
as the next Prime Minister.
MUSIC: I've Got the World
On A String by Frank Sinatra
Almost a year since he
resigned from her government,
Boris helps topple Theresa May.
I will shortly leave
the job that it has been
the honour of my life to hold,
with enormous and enduring
gratitude to have had the opportunity
to serve the country I love.
In the next hour, we'll
find out who's won the race
to become the new leader
of the Conservative Party
and the UK's next
Prime Minister.
It's July 2019
..and the UK waits to discover
the identity of its
new Prime Minister.
Bollocks to Boris!
You are not fit to govern!
And there's no way you
should be Prime Minister!
This time Boris is up
against Jeremy Hunt.
Stanley, can I just ask you,
which one of your sons are
we gonna get as Prime Minister?
People in burqas
look like letterboxes or
the open London Mayor
that people saw years ago?
Now, team Don't
wanna answer that?
Isn't it lunchtime?
Isn't it getting on for
lunchtime? Think it is.
See where he gets it from.
That's what I was thinking.
What would you
proud as a father?
What kind of Boris
would you like to see?
I'm very proud.
That's fine by me.
Oh, no, no, I'll I'll
stick on what I've got.
I'm really, really
fine. Totally proud.
Despite Stanley's
show of public support,
the Johnson family
remains divided.
Rachel has quit the
Conservative Party.
Are you going to meet
the Prime Minister today?
And Boris's brother Jo has
been campaigning in favour
of a second referendum.
HAROLD MACMILLAN:
It's a proud thing to be given
the office of Prime
Minister of Britain.
As for courage, character,
I know the British people
have these in full measure.
MARGARET THATCHER:
I have only one thing to say.
You turn if you want to.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Some people say we're
the Pound Shop Trumps,
but I don't like the
politics of what's going on.
Sort of every day is like a
schizophrenic nightmare.
But I care about
him as a sibling.
Of course there are
tensions in any family
and their relationships
must be quite tortured.
They disagree over quite a lot.
And in some ways,
the psychodrama
within the Johnson clan
is a reflection of the wider
psychodrama within the country.
So, Brexit versus Remain,
chaos versus order.
They're a mirror up
to society in a way.
Ladies and gentlemen, please
welcome Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson.
APPLAUSE
I, Dame Cheryl Gillan,
declare that the total
number of votes given
to each candidate
was as follows.
Jeremy Hunt
..46,656.
Boris Johnson
..92,153.
And therefore I give notice that
Boris Johnson is
elected as the leader
of the Conservative
and Unionist Party.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
At last Boris has
achieved his dream.
He is leader of the
Conservative Party
and Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom.
Thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody,
thank you. Thank you, everybody.
I want to thank all
of you obviously for
the extraordinary honour
and privilege that you
have just conferred on me.
And I know that
there will be people
..around the place who will
question the wisdom of your decision.
I say to all the doubters,
dude, we are going
to energise the country!
We're gonna get Brexit
done on October the 31st!
We're gonna take advantage
of all the opportunities that it will
bring in a new spirit of can-do.
I will work flat-out from now
on to repay your confidence.
But in the meantime, the campaign
is over, and the work begins.
Thank you all very much.
When he was about four
years old, he was asked,
"What would you like to
be when you grow up?"
And he said world king.
He's not a good loser, you
know, that's why he's won.
Cos the spoils go to the
person who wants the most.
Morning.
How are you? Morning,
morning, morning. Thanks, guys.
Good morning, how
are you? You all right?
Nice to see you too. Very well.
Good to see you, how are you?
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Have a good one. And you.
All right, don't forget. Definitely.
Take back control.
You're on the right side.
It's June 2016
..Boris is running the Vote
Leave Brexit campaign.
He doesn't think
he's going to win,
but even losing could help him get
closer to becoming Prime Minister.
I suppose all
politicians in the end
are like kind of crazed
wasps in a jam jar,
each individually convinced
that they're gonna make it.
You've been more or
less programmed that way.
My silicon chip, my ambition
silicon chip, has been programmed to
try to scrabble my way
up this cursus honorum,
you know, this ladder of things.
And so you do feel a
kind of sense you've got to.
Morning, everybody,
are you all right?
We want to get the bus in.
We need to get the bus in.
Cameras, can we all
take a step back please?
I want to I want
to talk to the crowd.
I want to talk to everybody
here. I want talk to I'm on that.
Can I just talk to
everybody here?
Good morning everybody,
can you hear me?
CROWD: Yes!
Folks, this is a once in a lifetime,
unrepeatable opportunity for us
to take back control
of our country.
Do you think we
could do it? Yes!
Meanwhile, a psychological
drama is playing out
inside the Johnson family.
Both his brother Jo and his
sister Rachel oppose Brexit,
and are campaigning for Remain.
I've thought about this,
and it's been hard for me,
but I think that we
are better in, you know.
And I don't want
to cast us adrift.
Well, it's divided us all
and it has divided the family,
but mainly into members
who think that Brexit is
a shit idea and those who
think it's a really shit idea.
Hey, what a tremendous
joy it is to be here today.
When I look out His father,
Stanley, now tours the country in
a Remain T-shirt
campaigning against his son.
What is the word you've been
hearing from the other side?
Take control. Well, my
message today is, yes,
stay in and take control.
Vote to remain. Vote to remain.
I remember Rachel
Johnson once described
the Brexit debate in their family
as a kind of Oedipal struggle.
Because of course Stanley
Johnson had been an MEP,
this staunch pro-European,
great Europhile.
And then Boris Johnson
tried to destroy all of that
and became the most high-profile
figurehead for the Brexit campaign.
One member of Boris' family
who plans to support him
is his mother, Charlotte.
She is voting leave out
of loyalty to her first-born.
Meanwhile, the Prime
Minister, David Cameron,
Boris' political rival,
has gambled everything on
winning the referendum for Remain.
APPLAUSE
Thank you. This
choice about Europe,
it is a choice for a generation.
Do we stay in, or do we go?
Now I'm very clear that
the best answer is to stay in.
To help him take on the
Prime Minister, Boris is joined on
the Vote Leave bus
by Michael Gove.
Ladies and gentlemen,
friends, colleagues.
Gove was demoted by
Cameron and so, like Boris,
has a motive to take
on the Prime Minister.
And it's fantastic to be
here with just three weeks
to go before the referendum
and the chance to take
back our independence.
Gove's then wife, Sarah,
remembers him making the decision.
Michael and Boris were having
lots of conversations
about Brexit
..and everything
was so feverish.
I mean, lots of people
said, "Don't do this,"
because they just thought
it's a massive can of worms
and nothing good
will ever come of it.
But I think in my
heart of hearts,
I always knew Michael
would go for Leave.
Um, just because that was
politically where he
always stood, really.
Boris and Michael,
they always just got
on really quite well.
And the thing is, is that
when youare in politics,
your friendships
really sustain you
because it's a really
tough environment to be in.
And I think that
they were sort of on
the same page politically,
and, of course, they
were both journalists.
Thank you. Thank you.
Both Michael and Boris have
that journalistic instinct for
a good story, how
to package an idea.
I think Boris is very good
at that and so is Michael.
To fully understand the
psychology of this situation,
one has to go back to
Oxford University, 1985
..where Boris Johnson,
Michael Gove,
and David Cameron
are all studying.
Honourable members wishing
debate in favour of the motion
will occupy the
benches on my right.
Honourable members
voting against the motion
will sit on the
benches on my left.
There being 167 votes
in favour of the motion
and 85 against.
I declare the motion
overwhelmingly carried
and I close the
house at 12.18am.
Boris has a clear ambition
to become president
of the Oxford Union,
something his father
attempted but never achieved.
Many presidents of the union
have gone on to be Prime Minister.
I first met Boris
at Oxford in 1983
where we were
exact contemporaries.
I think the first time I
met him socially was
at the Cheese and Wine
Appreciation Society.
He was this kind of
biggest man on campus.
The local celebrity.
I was quite pleased that
he remembered my name.
IMITATING BORIS: Hey,
Toby, Toby, Toby, Toby, Toby!
And it's all kind of big and
kind of dramatic and theatrical.
Um, but after that,
then he'll move on
and start talking to
someone else in exactly
the same way. And sort of,
you know, work around the room.
But often with a
kind of phalanx,
like a close protection
unit, you know, around him.
Almost like a politician
even back then.
Boris then joins the
infamous Bullingdon Club,
an all-male elite society.
Draped confidently
across the college steps,
he wears the club's
traditional outfit
..and once again bumps
into his old Etonian pal,
David Cameron.
To help him become
president of the Union,
Boris recruits a working
class student from Aberdeen,
Michael Gove.
So, I'm going to satisfy
your right to know. LAUGHTER
I'm going to let you know
what's underneath my kilt.
Now, if you just bear with
me, ladies and gentlemen,
ordinarily people have
to pay for this pleasure.
And I haveunderneath my kilt
a pair of Oxford Union
Boxer shorts. LAUGHTER
Another member
of the Boris cult,
one of his kind of foot soldiers
in his kind of political
campaign was Michael Gove.
Gove said his first
impression of Boris was that of
a basking shark waiting for
students to swim towards him.
He was two years below
Boris, very confident,
a slightly odd-looking
young man.
You continually want
to get to the centre,
the core of my private life,
and you'll never get to the
hard core of my private life.
And I recognise the
honourable gentleman.
And he was very
articulate and quick witted.
Boris was the kind of,
you know, Mafia boss,
and me and Gove were just
members of his kind of crew,
we were trying to kind of marshal
the votes for Boris back then.
He was actually much
better at it than me.
He was, obviously, a natural
politician in a way that I wasn't.
With Gove's support,
Boris is victorious.
Exactly 30 years later,
and whilst Michael plots the Leave
campaign at the back of the bus
Boris, Boris, Boris, Boris!
..Boris is once
again the front man.
Ketchup with your pasty?
Oh, my God, it's a pasty.
The pasty of independence.
As voting day draws closer,
Remain is still
predicted to win.
But the polls are narrowing,
and Boris is beginning
to catch up with his old
rival, David Cameron.
SARAH VINE: I remember him
shouting at me at a birthday party.
Dave said to me, you know,
"I am fighting for my
political career here."
I think that he didn't factor
in the Michael-Boris combo,
which was sort of
explosive, really.
This whole debate
is about democracy!
CHEERS It's our
ability to speak out.
And we won't be
drowned out, will we?
No!
I think the real low
point of the campaign
for David Cameron was
a Saturday afternoon where
I called him up and said,
"Tomorrow's Sunday
Time is gonna have
"a letter from Boris
Johnson and Michael Gove,
"which is basically
criticising you on immigration."
And I remember
when I first told him that
the line went dead
and a few minutes later
he called me back and said,
"Look, I'm really sorry.
"The reason I put the
phone down was I'm just
"so angry that they know that
I've been desperately trying
"to control immigration.
They're questioning my integrity.
"And I cannot
believe that two people
"who professed
to be my friends,"
one of whom that was
godfather to one of his children,
"that they were willing to
go that far in order to win."
Don't go and vote on
the basis of things you're
being told that aren't true.
So, let's get out there
and vote Remain tomorrow,
Thursday. Go for it.
Thank you! APPLAUSE
Do you think they've
won? No, they haven't.
Can we go forward to
victory on June the 23rd?
Yes. And do we
believe in this country
and what you can see?
Yes, we do, don't we?
APPLAUSE
LOUD CHEERING
When the polls closed,
I sank into a total
deep depression.
LAUGHING: I don't know why!
I'd been wildly
optimistic the day before,
but I convinced myself
we were going to lose.
And I was in a pretty
miserable mood,
I think, really up until
the Sunderland result
and suddenly
Sunderland, I think, "Crikey!
"Wow! We're in
with a chance here."
So, of course, you know,
I was up through the night,
and at about ten past four I
gave a speech on the South Bank.
A new dawn! A new dawn!
An independent United
Kingdom, how about that?
CHEERING
Four hours later, the
Prime Minister is gone.
I'm very proud and very honoured
to have been Prime Minister
of this country for six years.
But the British people have
made a very clear decision
to take a different
path, and as such,
I think the country
requires fresh leadership
to take it in this direction.
It was a huge moment.
Funny thing was
..Boris Johnson and Michael
Gove didn't wait for the result,
they went to bed.
And when they woke
up the next morning
and left their front
doors, they looked,
they didn't look joyous,
they looked flustered as if,
"Oh, God, what have we done?"
They never really wanted to win.
They never really wanted to win.
Whilst Cameron is resigning,
Boris is at home
with one of his closest
advisers, Will Walden.
I remember watching
him when Dave resigned,
dressed in a Brazilian football
shirt and ill-matching shorts.
And he just was shaking
his head. He was like,
well, you know, "what
have we done? Poor Sam.
"It's dreadful. Look
at that poor woman.
"I mean, having to go through
this." You know, "Poor Dave."
Totally Boris, totally mixed up,
totally confused by, you
know, what had been done.
Genuinely worried
about the outcome.
And then I think
the crucial thing
for him was what then
happened as we left the house.
CROWD BOOS
We'd never had police in the
house before. It was chaos.
And I remember at that moment
when Boris dived into the car,
he looked pretty scared.
These people, a
lot of them young,
they thought that Boris had
stripped their future away.
I remember
zipping off in the car
and there's a light at the end
of their road and it was green.
And I said, "If it
changes to orange,
"bust the light. I'll pay
the ticket if you get it."
I just said, "Just drive through
it." It changed to orange,
went to red, he slammed on the
brakes. And I thought, "Oh, God."
CROWD BOO
CAR HONKS HORN
Come on, Boris!
But I think at that
moment he realised
the effect of his
part in the campaign.
In Boris' mind there
was suddenly a kind of,
"What's the plan?
We haven't got a plan,
"we never thought
we were going to win."
It's 11am and the
country is looking to Boris
and Michael Gove
for what happens next.
SCATTERED APPLAUSE
And we ended up at Vote Leave.
He wrote a speech which
was pretty lacklustre, I think,
by Boris' own standards,
partly because they,
they were shocked themselves.
APPLAUSE
Thank you very much. And I
want to begin this morning by
paying tribute to David Cameron,
who has spoken earlier
from Downing Street.
I've known David Cameron
for a very long time,
and I believe he's been one of
the most extraordinary
politicians of our age.
The whole press conference
didn't look Prime Ministerial,
it didn't look like
they were in charge.
There was a reality and a dawning
of kind of who's going to do this.
And with Cameron resigning,
suddenly the plan
was in Boris' hands.
And I think for Boris that changed
everything for that moment.
CROWD: There is no plan,
there is no plan, there is no plan!
The challenge now
will be uniting a country
divided by this referendum.
The pound and shares
in British companies
have already spiralled
down. It is unprecedented stuff.
BROKERS SHOU
Within a day
news of Brexit wipes $2 trillion
off the value of shares on
the global stock market
..and protests spring
up across the country.
Tories out! Tories out!
Tories out! Tories out!
Are you taking control, Boris?
But Boris Johnson
is now the favourite,
and within touching distance
of becoming Prime Minister.
You lost, but your boy
won. How does that feel?
STANLEY JOHNSON: So,
it means a win-win situation.
Had a text from him What
does he say? ..just a second ago.
"Hey, hey, hey, hope
all well, lots of love."
I regard that as
being a positive sign.
Would you like him to run?
I think I explained that
he has to be a candidate
and I think it'd
be totally normal
for a man who's made
the effort he has made
..to derail Europe. Sorry,
that was a silly joke. That's a
Do you think that's what
he's done? That's a total joke.
And not to be taken seriously.
Boris has dreamed of becoming
Prime Minister for decades.
The seeds of that
ambition, some say,
lie in Boris' relationship
with his mother.
Boris clearly adores his mother.
I think he quite modelled
himself upon her.
And I think they
were rather similar.
Quick, intelligent,
humorous and good natured.
I mean, his
childhood wasn't easy.
He witnessed quite a lot,
somemarital, you know, discord,
which is not nice for any child.
So, naturally, she
was worried about him
because she said to me
that he was very vulnerable.
When Boris is ten
and living in Brussels,
his childhood is
thrown into disarray.
His mother, Charlotte,
leaves suddenly for London.
She has been admitted
to a psychiatric hospital
after suffering a
nervous breakdown.
She's a painter
and she did some
horrendous pictures there,
a lot of pictures
of her children.
There was always a
slight undertone of
..darkness in her pictures.
Here's a picture of them
with tears all over the place.
When I was in hospital,
they grew very close to each other
and very protective of each other.
And Boris was always very
protective of the younger children.
As a boy, Boris
would tell people
that one day he
wanted to be world king.
I've often thought that his
being world king was a wish
to make himself
unhurtable, invincible,
somehow safe
from the pains of life.
The pains of your mother
disappearing for eight months.
The pains of your
parents splitting up.
And I think that's what
ultimately drove him into politics.
It wasn't about some political
mission or big ideological idea.
It was about power. In
order to protect himself.
Mr Johnson, any message of
reassurance for the country?
There are millions of
very scared voters at
the moment who are just looking
for a message from their leader.
Now within grasp of
realising his childhood dream,
Boris has just four days to
gather enough support from MPs.
None of these countries can
handle the uncertainty, can they?
Hi, hello, hello,
very nice to see you.
To run his campaign, yet
again, he chooses Michael Gove.
See you later.
SARAH VINE: They'd all been
summoned to Boris' house in
the countryside to go and
have kind of top-level talks
about what was going
to be happening next.
And they sort of
They sort of arrived
to a sort of bacchanalian scene.
There was sort of a barbecue
and there was red wine
and lots of drinking
and partying.
And, you know, Michael
felt we're not celebrating here.
You know, this is a really
serious thing that's happened.
This is not a time
to have a party.
And Boris' response was,
"Hooray, I've won a thing!"
And so Michael went sort
of full Presbyterian Scot
and Boris went sort
of full Bullingdon.
Boris returns to
London to secure votes.
Are you well? Nice to see you.
You've had a good day?
Take care, night-night.
We look forward to the
comments tomorrow.
Leadership too though, yes?
Convinced he has
enough support to win,
Boris is ready to
launch his campaign.
They'd come back from this party
and Michael just
was ashen faced.
He just walked in
through the door, he said,
"I just don't think
Boris is up to this.
"I just don't think
he's up to it."
That was what threw Michael
and made him think
whether or not Boris was
going to be able to take
the job seriously enough.
I remember that I was
travelling on the Tube
to go and get Boris to
do the campaign launch.
And I had a text on my
phone appeared from one
of Boris' senior aides and
it just said, "Effing Gove."
Bit of a dig at Eton-educated
Boris Johnson from
the state-school-educated
Home Secretary.
Tom, Tom, Tom, I'm
really sorry to interrupt.
We're just hearing that
Michael Gove is preparing
to announce his
candidacy as well.
I got off the Tube, rang Boris,
who'd been in the shower apparently
when Gove had tried to call him.
Got to the house and Boris was,
he was utterly crestfallen.
He could not believe
that this had happened
after all they'd shared on
the referendum campaign.
He basically just kept
shaking his head just going,
"Why, why, why?"
And then there was
the whole point that we had to get
him to the campaign headquarters
to decide what he was gonna do.
Mr Johnson, what's your
message for Michael Gove?
What's your message
for Michael Gove?
No, move out of the way, please.
Will this harm your
campaign, Mr Johnson?
Move out of the way. Will this
harm your campaign, Mr Johnson?
What's your message
to Michael Gove?
Can I get my wife in?
Come on. Sorry, go on.
You're not fit to run a bath!
Thank you. Sir,
this way, please, sir.
What's your message for
Michael Gove, Mr Johnson?
Good morning, everybody,
have a great day, everybody,
have a good one.
Nice to see you.
Jesus Christ!
He's coming!
We've got some news
coming through to you.
The Justice Secretary
Michael Gove will stand for
the Conservative leadership
and the Prime Ministership.
I stand here
and I'm standing
for the leadership,
not as a result of calculation,
certainly not as a
result of calculation.
I'm standing cos I have a burning
desire to transform our country.
Your assassination of Boris
Johnson, if I could put it that way,
has cost you quite
a lot in kindness
and respect among your
colleagues. You'll know that.
Can you possibly
recover from that?
If you're the sort of person
who worries about
personal criticism,
if you're the sort of
person who allows
the attacks from others
to get under your skin,
you shouldn't be leader.
Wow! I mean I'm still picking
my jaw up off the ground.
This is Michael Gove
plunging a dagger into the back,
front, side, head
of Boris Johnson.
Raising, basically,
questions about his character,
his credibility.
But the really
damaging part of this
is he may well have kiboshed
Boris Johnson's
leadership ambitions.
Boris, has Michael
Gove betrayed you?
No, no, no, no.
Has Michael Gove,
your friend, let you down?
He says he doesn't trust
you, how do you deal with that?
Come and have a Let's
have it, let's have, come in here.
Now Boris has a
big decision to make.
Should he still run to be
Prime Minister and risk losing?
What do you make of
Michael Gove's intervention?
I'm here to back Boris,
so I'm not talking about
any other candidates.
Or step down and wait
for a better moment?
The problem with that is
it would be letting down all
the MPs who have
publicly backed him,
betting their careers
on his success.
Immediately you just go into
the mode of kind of,
"How are we gonna do this?
"Is he gonna stand?"
There was an argument that,
you know, Boris was
the great campaigner,
he could turn this around.
The truth is he'd lost 60 MPs.
I think it was going to be
very difficult for him to win.
I was the first MP ever to write
a public article saying
that he was our witty winner.
I wrote that in 2012.
It's blindingly
obvious, even then,
this person is going to
be the next Prime Minister.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Good morning,
everybody, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, everybody.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone,
can we
APPLAUSE CONTINUES
Thank you very much, everybody,
for coming along this morning,
and great to see so
many people here.
It is vital now to see
this moment for what it is.
It is not a crisis.
This is not a time for
wobbling or self-doubt.
But as a moment for hope
and ambition for Britain.
Suddenly I realised that
there was a point in the speech,
and I was thinking, "Hang on!"
He'd just written the
speech before he went in,
but I'd seen an
earlier draft and I said,
"You're not supposed
to be saying that."
That is the agenda for the next
Prime Minister of this country.
But I must tell you, my friends,
you who have
waited faithfully for
the punch line of this speech,
I have concluded that
person cannot be me.
Thank you all very
much. Thank you.
APPLAUSE
Boris, do you feel betrayed?
I got in the car with him,
and we headed to
their home in Islington.
And within 15
minutes of that journey,
he looked at me and he said,
"I made the wrong decision.
"Should have never
have backed out."
APPLAUSE
In July 2016, Theresa
May becomes Prime Minister
and Boris is out in the cold.
Do we have a plan
for Brexit? We do.
Are we ready for
the effort it will take?
We are.
Can Boris Johnson stay on
message for a full four days?
LAUGHTER
LAUGHTER
Just about? Religiously.
LAUGHTER
SPEECH DROWNED BY APPLAUSE
You know, Boris is an
incredibly competitive person.
I remember his sister,
Rachel, telling me a story that,
when I think she was
four and Boris was five,
it was her birthday party
and she got up on the
table to make a speech.
Boris became so incensed
that she was momentarily
the centre of attention,
that he leapt up on the table
and threw her off the table
and then started
making a speech himself.
You know, absolute
yearning for the spotlight.
In this tricky new
world for Boris,
he's waiting to know
what boat he'll be in.
Will she let him stew
on the back benches
or give him a job
in the cabinet?
I can remember sitting
with Boris here in Parliament.
I said, "What you doing,
mate?" And he said,
"Well, I'm Googling
government departments
"to find out which
departments have
"a bigger budget than London,
because if I got offered a job,
"I wouldn't want to take a
job where there was less
"responsibility than
being Mayor of London."
And, while I was there,
the phone rang, and
it was Theresa May.
I think his view was he was
gonna be kind of minister
for paper clips, if anything,
and should he accept that job?
REPORTERS SHOUT QUESTIONS
But I think he didn't
expect what then happened.
I think he might have rung
and he, he was just like,
"I'm the effing
Foreign Secretary."
Theresa May has
shocked the world
by appointing Boris Johnson
as her Foreign Secretary.
He's not exactly seen
as a safe pair of hands.
He's entertaining,
but hardly diplomatic.
Foreign Secretary has just been
announced as Boris Johnson.
World leaders thought
he was a buffoon.
The State Department
official brief,
he laughed cos he
didn't think it was true.
But he's nothing if
not the great survivor.
And he just thought, "Well,
I'm gonna prove them wrong."
Hi, there. Foreign Secretary.
Boris will be working
with Sir Simon McDonald,
the foreign office's most
experienced diplomat.
Your principal
private secretary.
Hi.
I'm Simon. You're
Simon, yes, how are you?
I'm very well.
He was clearly a
different sort of politician.
He was more relaxed,
he was very confident,
and he was more quirky.
And so, a big personality means
the possibility of big surprises.
And I didn't know
what they would be,
but I had worked out that
professional life
would be interesting.
Foreign Secretary, four months
ago you wrote a poem that described
the president of
Turkey as a wankerer.
Are you going to apologise?
You've accused the current
US President, Barack Obama,
of harbouring a
part Kenyan's, quote,
"Ancestral dislike for
the British Empire."
You've described the possible
future US President Hillary Clinton
as someone with, quote,
"Dyed-blonde hair and pouty lips
"and a steely blue stare
like a sadistic nurse in
"a mental hospital,"
unquote. LAUGHTER
There is such a rich thesaurus
now of things that I've said,
uh, that it would
really take me too long,
uh, to engage in a
full, global itinerary
of apology to all concerned.
Our ambassador to
the EU in Brussels had
the privilege of going
to Oxford with Boris,
and he told me that
this man is a very smart
and capable man.
That's the Boris Johnson
I can live with that,
I can live with that.
..I have met and we intend to
make good things happen together.
Phew, just stop there,
that's fine. LAUGHTER
That's great. Thank
you. It's called diplomacy.
That's fantastic.
It's going well.
It's going well, John.
Thank you very much, phew.
One of the things that people
knew about Boris Johnson
was that he had ripe
opinions about foreigners.
So, this was something
we had to consider
because it was possible that
those groups would take offence.
And I remember very
early on discussing this.
And what I suggested to him was
that all of that had been in the past.
He'd been a journalist, he'd
been interested in selling copy.
And he looked at me and he said,
"Simon, yes, that's a good idea.
"And if we were talking
about anyone else,
"that would be a
reasonable idea.
"But we're talking about
me, and I won't change."
Boris's approach
has consequences.
He wrongly describes the work
of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
a British-Iranian
political prisoner,
and jeopardises her release.
Iranian state TV welcomed
your comments around
Nazanin as an unintended
confession. What do you say to that?
Do you have any
comments about that?
And when he visits Burma,
where a genocide is taking place,
he casually starts
quoting Kipling
and overshadows
the diplomatic mission.
Come you back,
you English soldier.
We never left.
Probably not a good idea.
What? The Road to Mandalay?
Yes, not appropriate.
There's a sense that Boris isn't
taking the job seriously enough.
What do you think, Andrew?
This is a great mystery
about who did it.
Nobody seems to
have seen it happen.
Well, they've had
three tours this week.
Well, I'll, I'll Anyway, it's
absolutely, tragic, isn't it?
Boris' view of being
Foreign Secretary
was that he was put in
an expensive cigar tube,
flown around the world
and kept out of touch with
British politics for a couple of years.
It was a very clever tactical
move by Theresa May.
Are you running away from
the big decisions again, Boris?
Mr Johnson, do you think
the Prime Minister can
deliver a Brexit deal?
Do you think?
A few minutes ago Downing
Street put out this statement,
"This afternoon the Prime
Minister accepted the resignation
"of Boris Johnson
as Foreign Secretary.
"The Prime Minister
thanked Boris for his work."
Well, a pretty short and curt
statement there from Number Ten.
Frustrated with Theresa
May's Brexit negotiations,
and his own political
ambitions being thwarted,
Boris shocks the
world by quitting,
throwing May's
government into turmoil.
Who is running the
country, Prime Minister?
CAR HONKS HORN
Boris is out of the cabinet
and returns to the back benches
to strategise his next move.
The Johnson I knew at
The Spectator started out as
a sort of liberal,
cosmopolitan figure.
And found that political
space kept on opening up
for him to the right.
The same thing was happening
across the Atlantic with Trump.
Populism, a new breed
of authoritarian populists.
Right-wing leaders.
There were votes to be found
in taking far-right positions.
This is all calculated,
I should think.
He knows it goes down very
well amongst Tory activists.
"They look like letterboxes,"
Boris Johnson wrote on Monday.
He even compared women
who wear them to bank robbers,
though he insisted
that, unlike some states,
Britain shouldn't ban the burqa.
Dominating everything
today is of course
the Boris burqa row.
The Guardian front page,
"Johnson should apologise
for offensive burqa remarks."
The Times, "May calls
on Johnson to apologise
"for burqa letterbox remark."
The Mirror, "Spineless."
Boris Johnson is probably sitting
at home with a glass of whisky,
watching this, quite happy
that he's being talked about.
Ban Boris, what happened to
freedom of speech in this country?
You know, he's actually done this
because he wants to get elected.
This is what he's done to pander
to the extreme right of the party.
Racist remarks, Mr Speaker, which
have led to a spike in hate crime.
Mr Johnson, would you
apologise for your comment?
Will you have a cup of tea?
Would you like a cup of tea?
If I have a cup of tea, will
you answer my question?
No, no, I'm at I'm here
solely on a humanitarian mission
cos you've been here all day.
And you've been incredibly
patient and incredibly,
and I feel very sorry for
you cos I have nothing
to say about this matter
except to offer you some tea.
LAUGHING: OK. OK. Go on.
OK, thank you. Thank
you so much. Go on.
When you're finished
with it, bring it back.
Thank you. No
worries, take care.
People say, oh, politicians
should be careful what they say,
and they should watch their words
and all this sort of mumbo jumbo.
I don't agree. I really don't.
Even if it's offensive? I
think one of the reasons
But even if it's
offensive, Mr Johnson?
I don't want to cause offence
if I can possibly avoid it.
Then don't refer to them as bank
robbers. Well, you know, I think
You just said you would again.
I think that one of the, uh
..duties of a politician is to
speak his mind or her mind
in so far as possible.
You're gonna need You're
gonna need to push back.
REPORTERS SHOUT QUESTIONS
Go through, go
through, go through.
MUSIC: I've Got the World
On A String by Frank Sinatra
It's been two and a half years
since Boris withdrew from the race
to become leader of
the Conservative Party.
Go through, go through.
Now, with new support
from right-wing MPs
and with Theresa May coming
under increasing scrutiny,
Boris starts to position himself
as the next Prime Minister.
MUSIC: I've Got the World
On A String by Frank Sinatra
Almost a year since he
resigned from her government,
Boris helps topple Theresa May.
I will shortly leave
the job that it has been
the honour of my life to hold,
with enormous and enduring
gratitude to have had the opportunity
to serve the country I love.
In the next hour, we'll
find out who's won the race
to become the new leader
of the Conservative Party
and the UK's next
Prime Minister.
It's July 2019
..and the UK waits to discover
the identity of its
new Prime Minister.
Bollocks to Boris!
You are not fit to govern!
And there's no way you
should be Prime Minister!
This time Boris is up
against Jeremy Hunt.
Stanley, can I just ask you,
which one of your sons are
we gonna get as Prime Minister?
People in burqas
look like letterboxes or
the open London Mayor
that people saw years ago?
Now, team Don't
wanna answer that?
Isn't it lunchtime?
Isn't it getting on for
lunchtime? Think it is.
See where he gets it from.
That's what I was thinking.
What would you
proud as a father?
What kind of Boris
would you like to see?
I'm very proud.
That's fine by me.
Oh, no, no, I'll I'll
stick on what I've got.
I'm really, really
fine. Totally proud.
Despite Stanley's
show of public support,
the Johnson family
remains divided.
Rachel has quit the
Conservative Party.
Are you going to meet
the Prime Minister today?
And Boris's brother Jo has
been campaigning in favour
of a second referendum.
HAROLD MACMILLAN:
It's a proud thing to be given
the office of Prime
Minister of Britain.
As for courage, character,
I know the British people
have these in full measure.
MARGARET THATCHER:
I have only one thing to say.
You turn if you want to.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Some people say we're
the Pound Shop Trumps,
but I don't like the
politics of what's going on.
Sort of every day is like a
schizophrenic nightmare.
But I care about
him as a sibling.
Of course there are
tensions in any family
and their relationships
must be quite tortured.
They disagree over quite a lot.
And in some ways,
the psychodrama
within the Johnson clan
is a reflection of the wider
psychodrama within the country.
So, Brexit versus Remain,
chaos versus order.
They're a mirror up
to society in a way.
Ladies and gentlemen, please
welcome Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson.
APPLAUSE
I, Dame Cheryl Gillan,
declare that the total
number of votes given
to each candidate
was as follows.
Jeremy Hunt
..46,656.
Boris Johnson
..92,153.
And therefore I give notice that
Boris Johnson is
elected as the leader
of the Conservative
and Unionist Party.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
At last Boris has
achieved his dream.
He is leader of the
Conservative Party
and Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom.
Thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody,
thank you. Thank you, everybody.
I want to thank all
of you obviously for
the extraordinary honour
and privilege that you
have just conferred on me.
And I know that
there will be people
..around the place who will
question the wisdom of your decision.
I say to all the doubters,
dude, we are going
to energise the country!
We're gonna get Brexit
done on October the 31st!
We're gonna take advantage
of all the opportunities that it will
bring in a new spirit of can-do.
I will work flat-out from now
on to repay your confidence.
But in the meantime, the campaign
is over, and the work begins.
Thank you all very much.
When he was about four
years old, he was asked,
"What would you like to
be when you grow up?"
And he said world king.
He's not a good loser, you
know, that's why he's won.
Cos the spoils go to the
person who wants the most.