Guto Harry worked with Boris Johnson from mayor to number 10. Photo: Eddie Mulholland. old boss, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
Harry, who has known the former prime minister since Oxford University and served as his public relations chief, first at London City Hall and then at Downing Street, Harry found attempts to liken the former leaders of Britain and the United States clumsy and simplistic. However, there is another provocative world leader whose resemblance, in his opinion, is quite appropriate: Silvio Berlusconi.
“Here you have an extremely charismatic guy who had connections with ordinary voters,” Harry said of the former Italian prime minister, a politician he once carefully covered while working as a correspondent for the BBC in Rome. “Most of the establishment was shocked that this vulgar, terrible man with his 'bunga bunga parties' continued to win elections. He turned out to be restless. He came back again and again.”
What about Johnson connections? «I think it's charisma,» said Harry. “It's a direct connection with people. He does not feel constrained by conventions … There is something irresistible in Boris. What ordinary people see in him is Boris's very rare sincere belief that Britain is the best country on earth.»
The comparison is striking and reflects the curious position that Harry occupies in Boris's orbit. He is a friend who has known Johnson since the 1980s. He has a reporter's eye for history, having been Beeb's chief political correspondent before becoming a Tory PR man. He was a strong advocate for Johnson, liaising with the press on his behalf between 2008 and 2012, when Boris was mayor of London, and then involved in firefighting during the last seven months of his premiership.
Harry has been friends with Boris Johnson for many years. Photo: i-Images Picture Agency
This latest reality has been captured in a new podcast created by Harry, detailing his Downing Street run from February to September last year. The Welshman was one of Johnson's supporters parachuted in to save his premiership; Another was longtime Tory adviser David Canzini, and Sir Linton Crosby, the political strategist of The Wizard of Oz, enlisted outside support. galley, a mutinous crew and a discredited captain nailed to the mast,” Harry told the Telegraph to match the report. start a podcast. “But in my free time on the Thames, I volunteer in a lifeboat. I believe that these things can be saved and saved.
The first episode of the six episodes produced by Global, titled «Unprecedented», aired this week and the feeds are already piling up. Boris Johnson once «argued» with Prince Charles, as he was then, over criticism of Rwanda's government deportation policy, Harry said — a claim that has been downplayed by Johnson's allies and royal sources. Another was that Johnson viewed Sue Gray's investigation at the party as «an orgy of pain, abuse and humiliation». Third, that Johnson wanted to send a swear video to Rishi Sunak.
His old boss has been in touch in recent days, Harry told The Telegraph, though no details were given about what was said. Presumably not all sweetness and light. But Harry was firm in his dismissal of criticism that he let Johnson down by going out in public. “This is not intended to cause any embarrassment. It's not meant to hurt Boris, Harry said. “There are truths that I point out, flaws, because we all have flaws. But my goal is basically to try to help people, myself included, figure out what went wrong.
“We are the Mother of Parliaments. We are one of the most mature democracies in the world. We are one of the leading economies in the world. And yet we have had four prime ministers in the last four years.”
A source close to Johnson consistently dismisses the podcast narrative, saying, “These reports are simply inaccurate. Boris Johnson has nothing to do with this podcast, knows nothing about it and regrets any attempt to report such conversations publicly.”
A look at Johnson's frantic attempts to save the premiership last year is offered, and even the nature of Harry's arrival in February speaks volumes. Called to go to Downing Street, he entered No. 10, saluted Johnson and barked «attendant». The then prime minister raised his hand before dropping to one knee, taunting Harry, who stepped down as GB News anchor following a protest on his show. Johnson stated, «I will survive,» in reference to the soul classic Gloria Gaynor.
'Tension very early' with Sunak
One aspect of Johnson's downfall that Harry sees is the breakdown of his relationship with Sunak, whose decision to step down as chancellor will trigger Boris's downfall. “From the very beginning, there was tension due to the lack of a growth plan and economic policy direction,” Harry said. “Boris wanted to give what the party was screaming for and that explains why Liz Truss won the leadership election.
“Boris was not going to give away all of Liz Truss, all your Christmas holidays in one go. But less regulation, cuts in some taxes, no corporate tax. He didn't want to pay windfall tax. Ideally, he would like to see some reduction in VAT, not only because it eases the tax burden, but also because it shows the freedom you have after Brexit.”
So Sunak forced a tax on Johnson oil and gas windfalls when prices jumped after Russia invaded Ukraine? “Yes, to a large extent,” said Harry, listing the dignitaries in No. 10 who were instinctively against it. «I think it's fair.»
The statement touches on the core of lingering discontent between the Johnson and Sunak camps over who is to blame for the country's tax burden reaching a 70-year high. Sunak's allies have long argued that it was Johnson's endless demands for higher spending that drove the tax hike.
Another disappointment for Harry and those around Johnson at the time had to do with partygate. Harry did not claim that the decisions were wrong — rather, councilors and officials should bear the brunt of responsibility, and not Johnson, who was fined only once for a short meeting on the occasion of his birthday.
«I think the most perverse in all this is that he is the last person I know who I would consider a party animal, ”Harry said of Johnson. “He is much more of a loner, he hardly drinks. And yet this is not the perception of the whole world now. A serious journalist asked me a few weeks ago, when he himself was well oiled: «Is it true that Boris was just on the p … and was drunk all the time?» it was a long time ago… But never in No. 10.”
Johnson «felt like a war criminal»; via partygate
Harry also testifies to Johnson's frustration with Sue Grey, the senior civil servant tasked with investigating partygate and who has now resigned to become Chief of Staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Labor leader. He said that Johnson would have assumed Gray was treating him like a war criminal. According to Harry, Johnson said, «Once I've been acquitted of war crimes, we may be able to continue running the country.»
Harry always knew that Johnson was a political fighter. They were both rugby players on their Oxford University college teams. Harry said that Johnson once described his approach to politics as akin to his rugby style: «I find his pain threshold to be extremely high, he can take a lot of pain and still get up the next morning and carry on with life.»
As a BBC political reporter, Harry attended a press conference to launch Johnson's candidacy for mayor of London. His question is «Is this a joke?» was not easily forgotten by Johnson. Harry's mind changed and he saw firsthand how Boris can challenge the doubters in order to maintain political power.BJ Archive — Random Quotes
But last summer the Tory pressure got too much. Johnson was frustrated by his party's willingness to crack down on its leaders. “Boris called it a character trait that the party is like the Aztecs, addicted to killing each other,” Harry said. On July 7, 2022, two days after Sunak's resignation, Johnson also announced that he was leaving the government, striking at the Tory rebels with the phrase: «When the herd moves, it moves.»
Harry recalled the end with pain: “It is very difficult to find words to describe how terrible it is when everything collapses and there is, in fact, a decapitation. Power, you bleed fast. Boris still had his finger on the nuclear button until September, but basically one minute you are one of the most powerful people in the world, you have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, you are the G7 economy dominating a lot of things in the world. And then the next minute your views, even as a prime minister, are of interest, and not authority. And that goes for all of us who worked for him.”
Unlike some of Boris' supporters, Harry doesn't think his old boss will be back at Tory anytime soon. «I don't see a scenario this side of the general election when that could happen,» he said. He also doesn't think the party is doomed to fail: «I'd say there's a 30 percent chance of a clear Labor victory, a 30 percent chance of a disorderly, party-backed Labor victory, and a 30 percent chance of a Conservative victory.» p> Would you support the return of Boris Johnson? Poll
“And the longer the party remains calm and supports its prime minister and allows him to demonstrate his competence, the result of the hard work that he is capable of and great intelligence, the more likely it is that the party will win the election. next election.”
But he also wonders what would have happened if Johnson had somehow made it to summer break last year, if Tory frustration had cooled, if he had still somehow thus remained in Downing Street. .
«I can't help but think, as someone who was there last year, that if Boris had a support party and a less myopic press and media, and if he was given a chance, and he would have been overheard talking about all the important things he's been up to, that when you add the charisma and connection he's added to this mix…» Harry said before dozing off.
Perhaps such is the fantasy. — an alternate reality, not close to being true. The problem for Johnson's successor is that massive Tory polls show Harry alone looking back with rose-colored glasses.
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