World of Politics with Harry McGee

Somebody said that the live coverage of Boris Johnson’s arrival back from his holidays in the Dominican Republic on Saturday was inanity of a level not seen since the OJ Simpson car chase in slow-motion through Los Angeles freeways in the 1990s.

News channels spent an age on Saturday showing live shots of the British Airways jet touching down at Gatwick Airport shortly after ten. But if his campaign team wanted to portray it as a triumphal return or hoped that it would encourage more MPs to back him publicly, that was wishful thinking.

The reality was that Boris Johnson’s campaign was over even before the rubber hit the Gatwick runway.

I’ve been in London all week for the Tory leadership contest, which has been very interesting, even though more or less a foregone conclusion from the start – and for the first time in almost a decade, it was not all about Boris.

Over two days Johnson failed to get his public endorsement over 60. The threshold set by the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers was that anyone who wanted to be a formal candidate needed the backing of at least 100 MPs. It was a high bar and allowed a maximum of three candidates, as there are 357 Tory MPs.

In the end, there was only one. Johnson claimed he had 100 in the bag. But he was clearly struggling. And his opponents in the party were suspicious of the claims.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.