When Boris Johnson launched the Conservatives’ general election campaign in Birmingham last month, he arrived on stage with the cautious tread of a newly waddling toddler.
At the unveiling of his party’s manifesto in Shropshire yesterday, his approach was more of a high speed hurtle. Wham! Up he leapt with a sprightly hop, skip and a jump worthy of a young Carl Lewis.
Whisper it very quietly but with under three weeks to go before polling day, the PM may finally be hitting his stride.
Boris Johnson launches the 2019 Conservative party election manifesto at the Telford International centre in Shropshire
The manifesto launch was where the wheels spun off for Theresa May’s horrendous ‘strong and stable’ 2017 campaign. Boris, meanwhile, got through yesterday without even chipping the paintwork – all by sticking to what he does best: kicking Corbyn and bigging up Brexit.
Our location for the day was foggy Telford in the town’s grandly dubbed ‘International Centre’. Such a title conjures up images of marbled floors, swooshing fountains and helicopters landing on the roof. Instead it was a granite block on a non-descriptive estate and as glamorous as the local B&Q.
Why was the launch taking place on Sunday? Boris’s advisers seemed to think everybody watches the news on Sundays. And there was me thinking sensible folk had their hooves up in front of the footy.
The warm up act was party chairman James Cleverly, who was summoned on stage by someone with one of the naff mid-Atlantic twangs that Bingo Hall announcers tend to affect.
‘Ladies an’ genelmannn I give you Jammmmmes Cleverrrrrrlyyy.’ The same guy did the Tories’ campaign launch. Wonder who he is? Would love to know. Cleverly’s a cool performer, not something you can say about most of his colleagues.
Incidentally, most of the cabinet were on our train up from London. Yes, yes, standard class of course. We waved goodbye to the Prime Minister at Wolverhampton where a gaggle of policemen whisked him to a waiting car.
Boris got through the launch by sticking to what he does best: kicking Corbyn and bigging up Brexit
Cleverly gave us the whole ‘let’s get Brexit done’ thing. The mere mention of Jeremy Corbyn’s name was met with an agonised ‘ooooohh’ from the audience.
‘Oooh indeed,’ Clevers replied with a knowing nod of the head. We then got a swishy video of Boris out on the stump supping pints, kissing dogs and generally looking daft for the cameras. Eventually he arrived to a deafening blast of twangy guitar music and the usual chants of ‘Bo-ris, Bo-ris.’
He’s very British about adulation by the way. I wouldn’t say he doesn’t enjoy it but he tends to bat it away with a feint embarrassment. Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson stand there bathing themselves in the stuff.
The former came in for some heavy roasting, particularly for his mysterious all-at-sea Brexit stance, which the PM compared to missing wonder horse Shergar. ‘He used to be indecisive but now he’s not sure,’ cried Boris.
The Tory customer base lapped it up. This was a heavily pro-Brexit, pro-business audience by my reckoning. There was an imagined role play of Jezza visiting a Brussels official to renegotiate Boris’s Brexit deal. ‘Comment allez vous, Monsieur Corbyn? What do mean you don’t really want a deal?’ Again the audience whooped with delight.
They hardly caught their breath before he reeled off: ‘Let’s be carbon neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas!’
His detractors would have you believe the Prime Minister remains a liability but I have seen no evidence of this
There was a lot of supportive talk of business in the West Midlands, where manufacturers of electric cars were making electrons ‘swoosh so effectively from anode to cathode’. The PM paused quizzically. ‘I think that’s right anyway. It could easily be vice versa.’
We got the usual spiel about unlocking people’s potential up and down the land, about cheering business not sneering at it.
There were a couple of disappointments with the small print, namely his failure to fulfil a pledge to cut the highest tax rate. There was also barely anything on social care reform.
But how much more pleasant the overall message from the event felt than Labour’s manifesto launch last week. All that anger and hate in the room. It was like attending a mob convention where thugs drew up lists of all the people they wanted to whack.
His detractors would have you believe the Prime Minister remains a liability, a loose cannon armed with the soul of a clown which will force him to blow it at the most crucial moment.
I see no evidence of this so far in this campaign.
If anything he has been perhaps too cautious at times. But that early waddle has at last turned into a brisk march and there looks to be ample room left in the tank.
Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, is wheezing and spluttering harder than a busted bagpipe.
There could be no music more beautiful to Tory spindoctors’ ears.
