The hairdresser Cevdet Isik does not back down from any challenge: he has long had the difficult task of maintaining the disheveled hair of Boris Johnson. At first, he tried to tame the blonde hair that was going all over the place. Then he understood that he had to content himself with circumscribing the contours of the beast as best as possible.
“Boris Johnson has a bit of a rebellious wick,” summarizes the barber of Turkish origin, met in his modest living room in north London.
In hesitant English, he recounts how the British Prime Minister became his most famous client. It was in 2015, Boris Johnson was mayor of London, he was passing by on his bike. He walked in asking for a haircut. Then he came back again and again. Even when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, between 2016 and 2018.
When we talk to him about the troubles of his friend Boris, who is going through the worst crisis of his political career, Cevdet Isik becomes a philosopher. “He’s a good person. He has a big heart. I don’t know if he’s a good leader, I don’t know enough about British politics to say. On the other hand, I know that he is really persevering”, says the barber.
Cevdet Isik is one of the few subjects of His Majesty to speak in such diplomatic terms of the prime minister these days. Boris Johnson’s survival as leader of the Conservative Party — and of the government — hangs by a thread.
A storm shakes the leader of the fifth world power. In the wake of party gate — 16 parties attended by Johnson or other senior government officials in full containment due to the pandemic — five members of the Prime Minister’s close guard have resigned in quick succession in the last few days.
His policy adviser Munira Mirza, a faithful assistant for 14 years, resigned last Thursday. Four other heavyweights in the prime minister’s office, including his chief of staff and director of communications, jumped ship the next day.
According to British media, 17 Tory MPs have signed a letter demanding the resignation of their leader. If a total of 54 elected Conservatives (out of 360) join the sling, Boris Johnson will be subject to a vote of confidence.
The Prime Minister is not done with the partygate. Politicians expect more juicy revelations because police are investigating 12 of the 16 parties held during the ban on holding gatherings. Photos showing Boris Johnson and his advisers toasting at 10 Downing Street, while the 67 million Britons were forced to stay at home, would be part of the file assembled by the police.
As if that weren’t enough, Boris Johnson is facing another strong headwind: the skyrocketing cost of living, which will drive electricity and natural gas bills up by 54% from April . Inflation is likely to climb to 7%, unheard of for decades. Interest rates have started to rise, which will increase the housing bill.
The Prime Minister’s allies toured the media over the weekend to argue that he is in the best position to mend the ties he himself broke. He is used to impossible missions: Boris Johnson took over as leader of the Conservative Party in 2019 to complete Brexit, which he accomplished after winning the biggest Tory majority since 1987. It remains to be seen whether the population — and his own deputies — will follow him after the party gate.
“All liars”
The British judge the head of government harshly. The first waves of the pandemic hit the UK hard. The lockdown also hurt. People were outraged to learn that the prime minister and those close to him had broken their own rules by hosting private parties in violation of all health measures.
The lies of Boris Johnson, who initially denied the revelations of the partygate, were the straw that broke the camel’s back. “Politicians are all liars, him like the others,” says Karen Clarke, who runs a fruit and vegetable stall in an open-air market in Islington.
Boris Johnson and his wife lived in the area before moving to 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s official residence in London, in 2019. “We often saw him cycle by,” she says.
The energy of despair
Like many ordinary citizens, the shopkeeper speaks with a certain affection of her former “neighbor”, even if she totally disapproves of his antics. Boris Johnson has the gift of being appreciated by voters (whether hairdresser or fruit seller) with his particular blend of humor, antics and candor. He doesn’t take himself seriously, Boris. Not enough, according to many observers.
These character traits have enabled him to survive countless controversies in two decades of political life, first as an ordinary MP, then Mayor of London (2008 to 2016), then again as an MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs and finally prime minister.
” I call him Bouncing Back Boris [Boris le survivant]. He always manages to get out of it, no matter his blunders,” says Karen Clarke.
Boris Johnson and his government have been hyperactive for three weeks. In the midst of the crisis partygate, the Prime Minister first announced the lifting of almost all health measures related to the Omicron wave. He made a whirlwind visit to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president — he returned pointing to a “clear” and “imminent” danger of military conflict with Russia. His finance minister, Rishi Sunak, considered the frontrunner in the informal race to succeed the leader, has also launched a program to help families absorb soaring energy costs.
Boris Johnson appointed replacements for his advisers who left him at the end of the week. His allies in the government maintain that he has “cleaned up” his troops. He finally wrote to his deputies to promise them a “direct line” with his office so that each elected representative would have an important voice in the government. An insufficient gesture for the Conservative MP Aaron Bell, who denounced the “untenable” position of the Prime Minister.
The chosen one said he went to his grandmother’s funeral during the pandemic, held with the maximum allowed ten guests, and was unable to hug anyone. “I consider that those who pass the laws must follow them to the letter. He spoke of his “disgust” that “the people who make the rules don’t follow them themselves.”
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.