Boris Johnson Is Britain’s Trump, and He Now Has Full Control

What just happened in England was a triumph for right-wing populism and lies

Ian Dunt
GEN

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Photo: WPA Pool/Getty Images

TThe man they call Britain’s Trump now has full control. Boris Johnson is victorious. He has won an overwhelming mandate. Parliament can’t stand against him. He can do whatever he wants.

The victory came in a great overpowering wave. Over the course of yesterday evening, Britain’s opposition parties were routed — smashed against an overpowering Conservative juggernaut. One after the other, Labour seats which had been held by the party for decades, in some cases for their entire existence, fell to the government.

It was an electoral vindication for one of the most misleading and venally self-interested campaigns in modern British history.

The first lie Johnson told, the biggest lie of all, was that he would, “Get Brexit done.” This was repeated over and over, like some mortifying mantra, embedding itself in people’s brains, convincing voters that the endless psychodrama of Britain’s exit from the EU could be quickly resolved.

It was false. Johnson will pull the U.K. out of the EU next month. That much is right. It can no longer be stopped. But the Brexit nightmare will continue for years. He needs to negotiate…

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Ian Dunt
GEN
Writer for

Editor of Politics.co.uk. Host on the Remainiacs podcast. Author of Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? and How to be a Liberal, out in May 2020.