Johnson Has 'Personal Charisma' But Still Cannot Challenge May - Scholar

British Prime Minister Theresa May has indicated that she would seek to fight off any leadership challenge from Boris Johnson. Does Bojo have a shot at the top job in Westminister, or can May cling on for dear life amid hordes of circling Tories?

Sputnik spoke with Dr Connal Parr, research fellow in humanities at Northumbria University for more insight on the issue.

Sputnik: Do you think Theresa May will last until Brexit Deadline Day and is Boris Johnson a credible candidate to replace her?

Dr Connal Parr: I don’t think at this stage according to polls that he is in a good place. It’s partly due to the way the Conservatives elect their leader and what it would require is, you’d have a process where the leader would be replaced by 48 letters written to the 1922 committee, which is very powerful and Johnson simply doesn’t have enough support in the Conservative party for that to be credible.

Even if they move against Theresa May, which is quite possible, I really don’t think that Boris Johnson will be the person to reap the spoils from that. It’s more likely to be somebody like Sajid Javid, I don’t think Ruth Davidson is polling well, and I have a strange feeling that somebody who might be quite popular is Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Rees-Mogg is more inclined to something like a no deal Brexit, because he personally financially could benefit from this, with his second Hedge Fund in Ireland. Johnson is not regarded as a particularly good negotiator, there’s a personal charisma about him, there’s a pragmatic side, but it would probably echo the way Theresa May has been handling things.

Therefore there will be a difference, but it will be between a kind of Jacob Rees-Mogg figure and Theresa May, rather than Boris Johnson and Theresa May.

There are issues about entryism in the Conservative party that has reared up in the last few weeks, where a former UKIP donor has suggested that former UKIP activists and people on the right start joining the Conservative party deliberately, to unseat Theresa May.

Sputnik: Is a no deal Brexit inevitable?

Dr Connal Parr: It seems that this is the way things are heading. A week is a long time in politics, the EU is playing hard ball in terms of its rhetoric with the UK, and the potential damage would be severe not just for the UK’s economy, but also for the surrounding economies, especially Ireland but also in other EU economies.

The EU has nothing to gain from a no deal Brexit, so there will have to be a compromise. As long as Theresa May’s government shows that it’s prepared to make some of those compromises, then there could be a salvageable potential deal. At the moment it does look like we are heading for a no deal Brexit, which would be some very sharp rocks for the UK economically.

Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Dr Connal Parr and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.