The Bojo factor: why Boris Johnson always comes out smelling of roses

A new soap opera has hit UK TV screens.

It’s a compelling, gritty drama, complete with extramarital affairs, a secret love child, and a sickening undercurrent of racism and bigotry.

It is never off our screens, and both the tabloids and broadsheets are dining out on its content almost every day.

And what is this new gripping drama, you cry? Why, it’s the life and times of Boris Johnson, of course.

The bumbling, blonde, bicycling Brexiteer has become the Taylor Swift of UK politics; people just love to hate him.

Another day, another scandal seems to be his motto. If he isn’t making ludicrous statements comparing women who wear burkas to letterboxes, he’s accusing Theresa May of wrapping a suicide vest around the British constitution over her Chequers deal.

But love him or loathe him, Johnson has the ability to attract attention wherever and whenever he commands it.

He even has his own celebrity portmanteau.

‘BoJo’ has a history of catapulting himself into the spotlight after making a catalogue of social faux pas, which, in the early days at least, were often viewed as endearing and seemingly harmless.

Londoners were quite fond of the bumbling buffoon, waving at him as he cycled through the streets on his affectionately-termed ‘Boris bike’ as though he was a Hollywood star riding into town.

In fact, when he left his job as Mayor of London in 2016, the Evening Standard commissioned a poll asking Londoners to vote for their favourite Johnson moments from his eight years in charge of the city.

And what took the number-one slot? The time he got stuck mid-air, attempting to zip-wire across Victoria Park to mark Team GB’s first Olympic medal in 2012, wearing a bright blue safety helmet and waving two union flags, of course.

The other four in the top five of Johnson’s legacy weren’t much better.

There was the time he sent a 10-year-old schoolboy flying during a game of indoor rugby in Japan, and that unforgettable moment he joined a band of volunteers to help clean up the River Pool in Lewisham, and plunged into freezing water up to his chest.

This, it should be pointed out, is in stark contrast to the legacy left by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who introduced the congestion charge – which has been studied and copied across the world – as well as the revolutionary Oyster card.

Despite leaving office without making any big splashes – if you pardon the pun – he left with something far more important – his popularity.

A YouGov poll commissioned at the end of his term revealed that 52 per cent of Londoners believed he did a “good job” as Mayor of London, while only 29 per cent believed he did a “bad job”.

Only 31 per cent of respondents in the same poll believed his successor, Sadiq Khan, would perform better than Johnson.

But while he managed to win the hearts and minds of those living in London – and further afield – the ‘harmless buffoon’ persona has a far more sinister side.

He seems to have stepped up his inflammatory comments’ game in recent months, earning him a disproportionate amount of column inches as journalists and editors pounce on his every word.

Speculation that Johnson held secret talks with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon in July could have something to do with him upping the controversial ante.

Last month he hit the headlines by writing in his Daily Telegraph column that Muslim women wearing burkas look like “bank robbers” or “letterboxes”.

And more recently, writing in another newspaper column, he made some of his most heavily criticised comments to date, claiming Theresa May had “wrapped a suicide vest” around the British constitution and “handed the detonator” to Brussels.

The PM finally responded to Johnson’s comments last week during a BBC interview.

“I have to say that that choice of language is completely inappropriate,” she told Nick Robinson. “I was Home Secretary for six years and as Prime Minister for two years now, I think using language like that was not right and it’s not language I would have used.”

Maybe not, but Johnson is not as daft as it often suits him to make out he is.

He didn’t make those “inappropriate” comments naively, he made them in the full knowledge that they would cause a political storm. He made them because they would cause a political storm.

And in the midst of this political storm, rumours of Johnson’s leadership ambitions have, somehow, gained momentum.

It seems there’s no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to Johnson, even with the revelations earlier this month that his wife of 25 years, Marina Wheeler, is divorcing him amid rumours of multiple affairs.

No stranger to being embroiled in sex scandals, Johnson has previously been accused of affairs with writer Petronella Wyatt and art consultant Helen Macintyre, who may have given birth to his child.

While others would be ruined by this, Johnson thrives on controversy, and each new drama only serves to give his Google ratings another shot in the arm, it would seem. (And speaking of Google, it’s interesting to note that none of the top ten searches relating to Johnson actually has anything to do with his politics, and are all about his personal life and controversial comments.)

Johnson once famously said: “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.” But doth the man protest too much?

Conservative MPs opposed to Theresa May’s Brexit plan met recently to discuss how and when they could force her to stand down as PM, while May herself has admitted to getting “irritated” by the ongoing speculation over her position.

But she’s got nothing to worry about, if you are to listen to Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s communications director while he was Mayor of London.

He said Johnson was using his “humour, charm and intellect” in a “self-destructive way” that was “doing enormous damage to him as well as to the country”.

His comments are backed up by an unnamed senior Tory MP, who apparently told the Daily Mail: “Boris will never be Prime Minister – he would split the party.

“There are a large number of us determined to make sure he does not get onto the ballot paper whenever the leadership contest takes place.

“If he did somehow manage to win then there are many of us – well into double figures – who would resign the party whip. He would lose the Government’s majority. He could not govern.”

Whether there will be a happy reunion with Elvis on Mars remains to be seen, but the debate over Johnson’s leadership will continue to dominate news stories for the foreseeable future as the media seems incapable of going a day without a BoJo story.

Conservative MP and digital industries minister Margot James, who has criticised the former foreign secretary in the past, has had enough of his constant monopoly of the media.

She said: “It is infuriating how Boris Johnson is continuously in the news.

“The Prime Minister has a really difficult job to do, with the Brexit secretary, to get the best possible deal for this country out of the EU negotiations.

“I’m frankly fed up with talking about Boris Johnson.”

And while there will be many who share her view, Johnson and his outrageous antics have undoubtedly got the average Joe talking about politics.

He has reawakened people’s interest in Brexit – let’s face it, most people are sick to death of hearing about the ‘deal or no deal’ saga – and his inflammatory comments regularly spark debate in workplaces, on the bus, in the hairdressers.

A Hansard Society survey published this year revealed that the UK’s interest in and knowledge of politics is higher than it was when the first Audit of Political Engagement was carried out in 2004.

The share of the public saying they are certain to vote is at a new audit high of 62 per cent – 11 points higher than in the first audit in 2004 – while the number saying they are interested in politics is seven points higher than in 2004 (57 per cent vs 50 per cent).

The number of people saying they are knowledgeable about politics is 10 points higher this year compared with the very first audit (52 per cent vs 42 per cent), and those who say they are knowledgeable about parliament is 16 points higher (49 per cent vs 33 per cent).

Compared to last year, certainty to vote is up three points to 62 per cent, and interest in politics is up four points to 57 per cent.

Of course, even Johnson can’t take credit for this increased interest in politics, even if he would like to.

There’s no denying that the events of the past couple of years – did anyone mention Brexit? – have whetted political appetites amongst the general public and contributed to the increase in political engagement.

But there’s also no denying that the main character in this particular soap opera is most definitely driving the political debate, even if it is for all the wrong reasons.

While many – particularly those in his own party – will continue to berate him for the way his behaviour is making a mockery of politics and the Brexit negotiations, there are those power-hungry politicians who will no doubt be taking notes on how he manages to grab headlines wherever he goes.