Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Boris Johnson signs the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Guestbook before their meeting during the Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 2017. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]
There are no second acts in American life, but Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, London mayor and Spectator editor, is hoping there are in British politics. For three years—since fumbling the premiership to Theresa May—he and his clique have sought a do-over, a second, or third, or fourth swing at the bat. On Friday, he got it.
Johnson said Friday, in Switzerland: “We will leave the EU on October 31, deal or no deal.” The Financial Times signaled lukewarm openness to a Johnson cabinet Friday, if only to stave off a victory by hard-left Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn.
What Britain doesn’t have is time—time to further dither on Brexit, time for a protracted Conservative Party leader contest, and little time to prepare for a likely raucous visit by President Donald Trump.
It will fall on May—who Trump has quarreled with—and her presumably anointed successor to host the American leader, who is bringing all of his adult children with him, including White House senior counselors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Media reports emphasize that Johnson and Trump are tight, spiritual kindreds even.
Trump, rarely bashful, has full-throatily backed Brexit, and cultivated a tight relationship with the movement’s celebrity front man, the now-resurgent Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
“I said this was going to happen, and I think that it’s a great thing,” Trump said as a candidate in 2016 after the referendum result. He was speaking at his golf course in Scotland. “Basically, they took back their country.”
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