It will come as no surprise the that morning papers feature Boris Johnson’s decision to back European Union Exit. Most appear to have taken the view that the London mayor’s decision will be a boost for the campaign. No doubt the press will drag this story out for the rest of the week, but as Harold Wilson so famously said, a week is a long tome in politics. Things will undoubtedly change by Friday. David Cameron will have been aware of Johnson’s decision days ago and his team will have already planned a counter-attack.
Johnson has explained the reasons for his decision in his column for the Telegraph. He says “In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable, rather as the vast new Euro palaces of glass and steel now lour over the little cobbled streets in the heart of the Belgian capital.” Johnson does not see his decision to back the exit as ‘anti-European’. He is complementary about the ‘ideals’ of the European Union and believes that some of the officials have done great things, however, he goes on to say about them, “They just have a different view of the way Europe should be constructed. I would hope they would see a vote to leave as a challenge, not just to strike a new and harmonious relationship with Britain (in which those benefits could be retained) but to recover some of the competitiveness that the continent has lost in the last decades.”
Boris Johnson may well be the figurehead that the EU exit campaign has needed. He is charismatic, an excellent speaker and holds the popular vote. The polls are already suggesting he has a voice that will be listened to. But can he maintain the momentum? It is one thing to get the headlines on the back of the news of the day, and let’s be clear here, the news of the day was David Cameron returning from Brussels. Without that, Johnson would not have had a platform. It is entirely another to sustain a cohesive argument as to why we should leave the EU.
