Johnson and Corbyn — their one, great similarity

Johnson and Corbyn, what a contrast: right and left, winner and loser, the blusterer and the inadequate. Though their political positions couldn’t be more dissimilar, they do have something

in common, something with the potential to cause Johnson a whole lot of trouble.

Of Corbyn’s many, many failings, the most myopic of them was his intense concentration on the domination of his own party. He banged on at great length about his fondness for “democracy,”

but when he used that word what he really meant was his fondness for internal party democracy. The sort of democracy where everyone agrees with one another. That sort. And on that front, he

was swept to victory by the huge numbers of followers who joined Labour to vote for him.

There have been times when it’s seemed that the idea of winning power within Labour seemed Corbyn’s main ambition, while winning power in the country was something of an afterthought. It’s

the way of things with “movement” politics — it’s a thirty-year project, so one loss on the way to utopia doesn’t make a difference.

Just look at the insouciance with which Corbyn strode back in the Commons yesterday, a disgraced, defeated man. He took Labour to its biggest failure since 1935 and he doesn’t even seem to

regard it as a sackable offence. But then he’s won the internal party battle, so what does he care?

Johnson too has just won a great domestic victory, but one that doesn’t change the greater problem he faces — Brexit. Like Corbyn, Johnson has won the smaller fight. He now turns to face the

much bigger and well-organised opponent, the EU.

In facing the EU, Johnson will find that — despite all the euphoria at home — the raw calculus of his confrontation with Brussels has not changed. The EU still accounts for 20 per cent of

global GDP and has a population of 510 million. Britain’s GDP is still around 2.3 per cent of global GDP and our population is still around 60 million. The power relation between the two

sides remains unchanged. Johnson’s new majority, though impressive in SW1, will count for little in the eyes of Michel Barnier.

Brexit is going to happen and Johnson has based his leadership on that fact. So determined is he that Brexit will be done on his terms, he has moved to legislate for the extension period to

be unalterable. He doesn’t want the process going on into 2021. This bold move assumes that the deal with Brussels can be completed in the next 12 months. It would be a rapid piece of work

were it to be done.

But if he can’t do it, and if Britain begins to slide towards a no-deal Brexit — and if Nicola Sturgeon continues to agitate for a second Scottish Independence referendum, then Johnson’s

glorious victory could turn very quickly to ashes in the mouth. Like Corbyn, he will have won the smaller war, but lost the main event.

Johnson has proved himself a canny operator. Many people — me included — underestimated him. But so far, his greatest achievement has been a product of the campaign trail. To prove himself,

Johnson has to start notching up successes in Downing Street, that is, he has to stop campaigning and start governing, and that requires a very different set of skills.

It has to be remembered that, though the public likes Johnson, his record on interpersonal relations, especially with EU officials, is poor. As the former Conservative minister Steve Norris

said, “Everybody likes Boris except the people who know him.” The vaguaries of the campaign trail are over. Now the PM has to get up close and personal with Michel Barnier and his team to

hammer out a deal. The sloganeering and speechifying — Boris’s strongest suits, will count for nothing.

Johnson won but, like Corbyn, he won the smaller war. He now faces the much greater fight. There is no evidence that he is any more prepared for it than he was before the election. And in

that sense, though it may not feel that way, nothing has really changed.

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