Brexit has been an issue taunting the British population for the last four years, but the man in charge of it all hasn't always believed in it?

In the past couple of years, long before the prevalence of the Corona epidemic, Brexit (the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union) has been an issue which has dominated the political and economic landscape, an issue which has reigned across three prime ministers, four chancellors and countless rounds of negotiations. Brexit has been the topic that has severed the nation, splitting families and friends apart, with much of the older generation advocating for leaving the EU, and the youth endorsing remain. While pursuing the role of prime minister, Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and the poster boy of the Vote Leave campaign, promised a swift execution, a sentiment which he had echoed throughout his early leadership; this proposition provides a stark contrast to his cynical conceptualization of the deal which he seems to have conjured up. Now, over four years after David Cameron announced the verdict of that fateful referendum, the final deadline of the 31st December, is fast approaching. We’ve all heard Johnson heartily insist several times that he would be able to broker a deal with the European Union, there have been several dates which he said he would do this by, his most recent, 31st December although there are rumours circulating that he may push the date back even further. Before becoming Prime Minister, Johnson voted against his predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit deal twice, before voting for it the final time, after reluctantly concluding that there was no way a better Brexit deal could be reached. Prior to his appointment of Prime minister, Johnson was a key figure of the Vote Leave campaign, he was a key individual involved in the popularisation of Brexit, he championed for a Norway style deal, which would consist of the UK being involved in the single market, but being free from the dominion of Brussels. The year of 2020, which was supposed to be Johnson’s finest hour (in December 2019, Boris had warranted a Conservative majority in Parliament, granting him more liberties to do what he desired)  was overshadowed by the COVID pandemic, so Brexit was put on the backburner. Despite Boris Johnson’s Eurosceptic reputation, he is known to have had pro-EU tendencies. Many journalists and politicians have queried whether Boris Johnson truly believes in the concept of Brexit or whether he just backed it to further his career; it cannot be denied that he has criticised the EU many a time and may not have assented the way it was run, but Johnson has previously acknowledged the advantages of staying in the EU, indicating that perhaps he didn’t agree with everything the EU did and wanted reform instead of a complete withdrawal. He is infamously known to have drafted an alternative version of his column in the Daily Telegraph where he proclaimed his endorsement of the Vote Leave campaign, apparently he wrote them both and decided to use whichever read better: this begs the question, does Boris Johnson actually believe in Brexit or is he just a ravenous opportunist?

Soon after finishing university, Boris Johnson worked as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph in Brussels where he wrote about the European Commission, mostly criticizing it, especially the president at the time, Jaques Delores; many British and European journalists arraigned Johnson’s journalism and his work was regarded as the pinnacle of fake journalism to some. He often mocked European law and ridiculed leaders and governments of sovereign states. His strongly anti-european articles caused a stir among the Tory party back in England, separating the Eurosceptics and Europhiles; for example, Margret Thatcher favoured Johnson’s work whereas John Major, her successor, didn’t agree with many of Johnson’s opinions. Johnson’s work has been said to have furthered the divide to such an extent that the divide eventually caused the downfall of the Conservative party in the 1997 general election. Johnson’s articles not only seemed to fuel the fire in the UK, causing many British citizens to question the EU, but the influence of Johnson’s articles was transmitted all across Europe. He himself proclaimed that it was his own article, titled ‘Delors plans to rule Europe’, which inspired the Danes to yearn for independence from the European Union. It was in Brussels where the laddish, public school persona of Boris Johnson, which we see today, began to flourish; his witty, irreverent and charismatic nature caused his popularity to soar in the UK and many of his European counterparts in Brussels found his articles humorous. After Johnson’s five year stint in Brussels, he was offered a regular column in the sister paper of The Telegraph, The Spectator. Here, he continued to write in his impudent and self assured tone, continuing to critique the way the EU was running. Boris Johnson went from being a regular columnist at the Spectator to being the editor in the space of just a few years; while in command, Johnson reverberated his light and boyish style throughout the paper. He welcomed contributions from journalists and cartoonists on the left and managed to increase profit and circulation. 

In 2001, Boris Johnson transitioned from writing about politicians to become a politician himself, earning himself a seat in the Houses of Parliament; although he did continue with journalism on the side. The book ‘Friends, Voters, Countrymen’ was written by Johnson and released in 2001; he wrote about how the UK should not leave the EU as it would diminish the influence of the UK in ‘the designing of the continent’, a sentiment which Johnsons seems to have forgotten in his nationalistic approach to Brexit. In a 2003 address to the House of Commons, Johnson claimed ‘I am not by any means an ultra-eurosceptic. In some ways, I am a bit of a fan of the European Union. If we did not have one, we would invent something like it,’ which obviously contradicts the entire last four years of his career. In 2007, he became the Mayor of London, where he displayed his support for immigration, among other things; in 2013, he claimed that : “I’m probably about the only politician I know of who is actually willing to stand up and say that he’s pro-immigration.”. By 2012, Johnson was calling for an EU referendum, one which people would vote to determine the relationship between the UK and Brussels, however not a referendum deciding whether the UK should be in the EU, but whether it should have a more minimalistic relationship with Brussels, which would allow the UK to remain in the single market but withdraw from other aspects. He repeatedly emphasised the fact that the UK should stay in the single market, and that the UK should “construct a relationship with the EU that more closely resembled that of Norway or Switzerland”, both of whom are members of the single market, pay into the EU budget and allow freedom of movement. In 2013, Johnson wrote an article where he claimed that the UK had to realise that the UK’s problems would not be solved by leaving the EU, he said that the UK suffered from ‘chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure,” In 2014, Johnson published a Winston Churchill autobiography, where he wrote “The European Community, now Union, has helped to deliver a period of peace and prosperity for its people as long as any since the days of the Antonine emperors”. An unpublished column that Boris Johnson wrote for the Telegraph, contained many pro EU ideas, for example: “The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” Many of Johnson’s statements seemingly contradict each other, he supports the EU one day and then the next he doesn’t. 

As June 2016 approached, Johnson’s need to make an absolute decision intensified, he’d been perched on the fence for too long, some would say this is because he was unable to choose which would be more beneficial for him in the long run. However on the 16th March 2016, he released an article in the Daily Telegraph, declaring his support for the Vote Leave campaign. In his article, he likens the EU’s rule over its member nations to ‘legal colonisation’; although it is important to note that Johnson allegedly thinks that colonisation shouldn’t have ended in Africa-  “The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more.”. In this piece, Johnson also ridiculed the EU, describing some EU rules as ‘ludicrous’, he also implies that the EU is undemocratic, he emphasises that Greece didn’t get to control their spending, while emphasising that democracy is important. 

Now, Boris Johnson is a renowned Eurosceptic, he’s the executioner, the man who the burden of Brexit falls on. Considering Johnson has been chasing the job of PM for numerous years, the role of PM should be an honour to him, but it seems that the prime minister has taken on more than he can handle this time.