Two partial electoral defeats, the resignation of the president of his party with the farewell shot that the Conservative base “deserves more than that,” and his colleagues back home openly discussing how to change the rules of the party for another vote of confidence, nothing seems to bother Boris. Johnson.
As MPs in the UK spoke, publicly and privately, of how voters had sent the Conservative Party and its Prime Minister a clear message that things needed to change, Johnson seemed pleased to continue as he is, and urged his MPs to recall their “golden rule”: “Focus on what we are doing, what we have been chosen to do, to help push the country forward.”
So far it is predictable.
The Prime Minister is known to hate apologizing, showing contrition or admitting guilt, traits that his admirers and detractors love and detest on equal terms.
So his admission to our Sky News interview on Saturday that he had been “filled” was a rare moment of frankness from a typically inscrutable politician.
When he tried to reduce the losses of the by-elections to people who had a “democratic safety valve to let governments out,” I told the prime minister that much of the criticism went directly on him.
To which he replied, “That’s right.”
“What I think, no doubt, is that if you look at the by-elections, people were absolutely fed up with hearing things that I had filled in, a myriad of things.
“And what they wanted to hear was,‘ well, yeah, but what’s that guy. What is this guy doing? “
The war in Ukraine, an “economic problem we do not need”
But that was about as much self-reflection as the prime minister was willing to do as he went on to talk about the economy and his desire to stand up to Russia’s aggression on the world stage.
With his eyes set on the G7 and NATO, he specified what he meant by “Ukraine fatigue” while urging his fellow leaders not to give up the fight.
“Everyone is looking at this and too many countries say this is a European war that is not necessary. It is an economic problem that we do not need and therefore the pressure will increase to encourage, perhaps coerce Ukrainians into a bad peace.” “Mr. Johnson said.
He went on to say that if Vladimir Putin “is achieved with the naked conquest of other people’s territory, the cross-sectional reading for each country here is absolutely dramatic.”
Read more: Oliver Dowden has jumped, but will others follow? The prime minister, who lives in a parallel universe, says the electoral losses of the former Tory MPBy will slowly seep like poison into the bloodstream of conservatives.
A Russian aggressor who does not respect international borders would lead to a “long-term disaster,” the prime minister argued.
Johnson is clear that he will stay fully behind President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to try to avoid any demand from Ukraine to offer territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for the end of this war.
It is these talks that are likely to dominate the rest of the prime minister’s eight-day trip, as he flies to the G7 summit in Bavaria on Saturday night and then to NATO.
At these two meetings, the United Kingdom will press Europe to set a deadline for Russian gas imports, discuss next steps on sanctions, how to help export grain from Ukraine, and consider what further military and economic support could be offered to the country.
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13:01 said last week that he was concerned about the “fatigue of Ukraine”
Will the government cut taxes next year?
But, as the prime minister acknowledged this weekend, as he tried (at least most of the time) to blame the mid-term blues election losses and the cost-of-living crisis, people are looking for the government help alleviate it. the compression of their income.
On this, the Prime Minister told me “of course we will do what we can” when I pressured him on whether the citizens could expect tax cuts next year.
But when it comes to public sector wages, it was less clear about the prospect of larger wage increases for workers to help offset rising inflation.
Millions of public sector workers, who are already struggling with rising prices, will be prepared for wage cuts in real terms if wages rise by 2 to 3% with inflation, which is already 9.1%, and they are expected to reach double-digit figures in the fall.
To put it in context, the average wage growth of the private sector is currently 8%.
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But the prime minister on Saturday refused to commit to higher wage deals in this difficult economic context, warning of the risk of an inflationary spiral.
“We cannot have a situation where wage increases are only eliminated, by further price rises,” he said.
The elimination of by-elections defeats and the party revolt, revived once again in the last 48 hours, are just some of the problems he faces when he returns home.
A summer of possible strikes, pressure to help with bills and tax cuts, and all the time these difficult and controversial decisions made in the pressure cooker of a prime minister who is still very much on the ropes.