If our new Prime Minister Mr. Johnson was hoping for a political honeymoon then he must be surely disappointed. The Prime Ministerial Jaguar's engine wasn't even switched off and Mr Johnson had barely got out before loud boos and heckling were heard throughout Whitehall and Downing Street as he gave his first address to the nation on the 24th of July
Most of the time the hand over of power from an out going leader to the successor is a very ceremonial and often drama free affair. The outgoing Prime Minister will make a speech outside of No. 10 then will be driven a few minutes drive up the Mall to Buckingham Palace where they will tender their resignation to the Queen. The successor will then follow on half an hour to an hour later, interestingly in that time Britain will albeit very briefly be an absolute monarchy.
However the transfer of power was less than smooth last week. Theresa May's final speech was interrupted by protesters and her convoy was blocked going to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen. Boris Johnson faired even less and was booed as well.
In fact booing has since followed Mr Johnson around a lot in all four corners of our realm over the past week, the Prime Minister has been on a whistle stop tour promoting his new premiership and plan to take us out of the EU on the 31st at all costs. His not so magical mystery tour has seen him in Scotland with Nicola Sturgeon.in Wales and and in Northern Ireland.
The conservatives were hoping for a 'Boris bounce' this week but it's been more like a 'Boris plummet' last night saw the conservatives seat in the Breacon's changing hands to the Liberal Democrats which will be a boost for new leader Jo Swinson. In fact the by election result is even more important for another reason the constituency voted to leave the EU and now the remain alliance has won there. So is there a strong anti Brexit trend emerging?
The threat from the Brexit Party to the Prime Minister has for the time being stalled, however by-elections are not the same as general elections. Will Johnson be able to hold the Brexit Party at bay?
The Brecon by-election has cost Johnson another MP and taken his Common's majority down to one. It is very hard to see how the Prime minister can pivot out of this. only having a one MP majority in the commons will be very troubling for Mr. Johnson as it will only need a few dissenting MP's to vote down any votes in the house.
Broadly speaking the parliamentary arithmetic that faced Mrs. May is still facing Mr. Johnson a no deal Brexit will be very bad for the economy as the pound has shown over the past few weeks with Mr. Johnson's determination to leave even with out a deal. Parliament will vote against leaving with out a deal too. However the deal that Mrs. May spent years negotiating is the only deal on the table, but MP's have voted it down three times. So we will either need another general election or a second referendum to beat the deadlock . But time is running out we do not have long till the 31st of October.
Broadly speaking the parliamentary arithmetic that faced Mrs. May is still facing Mr. Johnson a no deal Brexit will be very bad for the economy as the pound has shown over the past few weeks with Mr. Johnson's determination to leave even with out a deal. Parliament will vote against leaving with out a deal too. However the deal that Mrs. May spent years negotiating is the only deal on the table, but MP's have voted it down three times. So we will either need another general election or a second referendum to beat the deadlock . But time is running out we do not have long till the 31st of October.
Our new Prime Minister has also come under criticism for dropping the investigation into Mark Field MP over his actions at mansion House where he aggressively ejected a climate protester at a dinner where the now ex Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond was also in attendance. So as summer slowly blends into an unpredictable Autumn I wonder what next will come out of the Johnson camp.
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