From Breakingviews: Boris Johnson has finally realized his ambition, becoming the UK’s next prime minister. His political triumph will be fleeting, though via peter_tl
LONDON - Boris Johnson has finally realised his ambition. The former mayor of London and prominent Brexiteer is set to become the UK’s next prime minister after winning the contest to lead the Conservative Party, garnering 66% of the roughly 139,000 votes cast by party members. His triumph will be fleeting, though. To avoid a shorter, even less successful tenure than his predecessor Theresa May, he must wriggle through one of three narrow escape routes.
Johnson campaigned on the promise that Britain will leave the European Union by Oct. 31 - “do or die”. The least disruptive way to achieve that would be to succeed where May failed: by securing a Brexit deal with the EU that is approved by parliament.The former foreign secretary has dismissed the idea of making a few cosmetic tweaks to the agreement May negotiated last November. Instead, he insists on ditching the Northern Ireland “backstop”.
That idea would horrify the eurosceptics who are among Johnson’s most enthusiastic supporters. And he needs their help to secure the 320 votes required to get any revised deal through parliament. The government’s slender majority depends on the support of 10 representatives of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. In March, those members, as well as 34 Conservatives, voted against May’s agreement. Neither group is showing any sign of softening their stance.
Johnson could join forces with the Brexit Party, but only at the expense of alienating more of his party’s moderate supporters - and committing himself to a “no-deal” Brexit if he won. An election would, therefore, represent a desperate gamble. In 2017, May tried the same tactic to establish her credibility with British voters after she, too, became prime minister following an internal party contest. It cost the Conservatives their outright parliamentary majority.
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