BoJo - from Heineken to Marmite

The past week saw the fall of Boris Johnson, who announced his resignation from Parliament in advance of findings from the Privileges Committee about ‘party gate’. A by-election will now be held in his Uxbridge constituency.

We usually aim to be studiously ecumenical in our political analysis here at TCC Towers. But we are with much of the public and the commentariat, of all political colours, in seeing little to mourn in the departure of a politician who has done far more harm than good.

One characterisation particularly caught our eye, within the subsequent commentary: “Boris’s journey was from Heineken to Marmite,” quipped Gabriel Milland on social media. This seemed to us to sum up quite nicely BoJo’s political journey (Heineken referring to a product with broad appeal broad appeal, and Marmite describing one which people either love or hate). Where once Boris was seen as someone who could ‘reach parts of the electorate no other Tory could’, he is now far more toxic than the average Conservative. The mistake of his allies is to continue believing he is Heineken.

Rob Ford (TCC Weekly reader no less) noted in a recent article that Johnson’s popularity is heavily over-stated. It had waned, Ford pointed out, even by the time of the 2019 landslide election – to levels below that of Theresa May in 2017. It is now far lower than it was even then.

This is a dramatic shift in fortunes; as recently as 2013, The Economist magazine hailed ‘Generation Boris’, describing millennials’ affection for a former Mayor who they did not think of as a typical Tory, and who they associated with the liberalism and largess of London. Few would write this now, and if ‘Marmite Johnson’ is loved by anyone in 2023 it is not by young liberals in the capital.

The shift from Heineken to Marmite feels qualitative not quantitative. Johnson’s appeal has not merely shrunk down to a core of true believers, as most politicians’ appeal usually does. It has changed more fundamentally. One explanation would simply be that Johnson became the figurehead first of the Leave campaign and then of ‘Get Brexit Done’. The EU Referendum left the nation deeply divided and Johnson was heavily associated with one side.

But another way of reading the phenomenon would be about personality. We were interested in this thread by Robert Saunders, studying the coverage of Boris Johnson by Anthony Seldon over time. Saunders takes this highly critical recent Times piece by Seldon, and compares it with Seldon’s enthusiastic support for Johnson in the past. Seldon had projected many things onto Johnson which were simply not there, Rob Saunders argues. Perhaps, this implies, almost everyone has it in them to be drawn to Johnson against their better instincts. Including a biographer of six former British Prime Ministers, like Anthony Seldon. [Ed: there is also a values angle to Boris Johnson’s increasing lack of popularity with socially conservative voters who are troubled by rule-breakers but that’s a whole separate article.]

Ultimately, it would seem, Boris Johnson’s charm casts a very wide net, but his true character always disappoints. By this reading he is not so much divisive as beguiling. The whole country has been journeying to the same damning conclusion about the former Prime Minister – the only difference being the speeds that people are moving at.