Don’t be fooled by Boris the bamboozler – he will be ready for his star Covid inquiry turn

Johnson will put up a beguiling performance, we can be sure, writes his biographer, Anthony Seldon. Expect some carefully calculated contrition, wit and self-deprecation – and a forensic response prepared by some of the best lawyers in the land

The former prime minister will face the Covid inquiry panel later this week (Getty)

Boris Johnson, we are told, has spent up to a year preparing in meticulous detail for his defence before the Covid inquiry.

I can understand that: it’s a serious deal – and the accusations against him already levelled by witnesses are heavy. Never before has a prime minister been accused of such callousness – nor such a cavalier attitude to his job of leading the nation.

If Johnson had spent a fraction of the time that he’s now putting into saving his bacon caring for his herd of 65 million during the Covid crisis, far better outcomes would have occurred – and many more people today would still be alive.

Johnson will put up a beguiling performance, we can be sure. Some carefully calculated contrition, some wit and self-deprecation, and a forensic response prepared by some of the best lawyers in the land.

But a leopard can’t change its spots, and underneath, there’ll still be the same Johnson, who fails to see that he has done anything wrong, or that he could have led the country with more integrity and seriousness.

With Johnson, it’s all bluster. It’s all a jape, don’t you know?

Not everything Covid-wise under Johnson was a disaster. Giving support to the vaccine drive when his staff encouraged him to do so was good. His appearances in front of the cameras displayed a badly-needed optimism. It was in these moments that Johnson showed he had some of the requirements to be a good prime minister.

But not seriousness, in my opinion, which should be sine qua non for any leader. To put this in perspective, no prime minister of the 57 since the office was created has had such a seemingly flippant attitude to the job – or such apparent disregard for the people who work for him, or the people he leads. From what I have seen, Boris Johnson cares deeply: for himself and for himself alone.

To the diminishing band of brothers and sisters who continue to support him, I would say – point to anything domestically that he did as prime minister which disproves the thesis that he was completely lacking in integrity and gravitas. From securing the benefits of Brexit to making a reality of levelling up, it was all hot air, wishful thinking, a search for applause.

Let’s look at the charge list. I would assert that he failed during Covid:

To provide the consistent leadership the country had a right to expect from a prime minister

To possess even a basic level of understanding of data and science

To establish a calm and respectful operation at the centre of government

To have the fundamental seriousness and integrity a prime minister needs

To remain unswayed by what partisan newspapers and commentators were saying

To set a culture and tone across Downing Street and the country: by his own example – and his failure to dismiss Dominic Cummings after Barnard Castle

We hear a great deal about how “unprecedented” the Covid crisis was, but the Second World War was a far more problematic and serious crisis. Yet the prime minister of the day, Winston Churchill, didn’t oversee an aggressive culture in No 10 – or at the heart of government. Trust and respect permeated the system, despite all the heated clashes and differences of opinion. As a result, the quality of decision-making was consistently higher, and outcomes better, than anything Johnson could muster.

To me, at least, Johnson was neither good enough at his job, nor good enough as a human being. The combination proved fatal – literally. For tens of thousands.

Anthony Seldon is a historian and commentator on contemporary Britain. He and Raymond Newell wrote Johnson at 10