James Grundy MP: Could Boris Johnson be back one day?

I was very sorry to see the end of the premiership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Almost from the moment he entered office, he was under pressure from incredibly difficult situations outside his control and I felt he performed very well given those circumstances.

Indeed, it is probably worth observing that no Prime Minister since Churchill has had to deal with so much in so short a time.

Firstly, he had to deal with a worldwide plague within a few short months of coming to office.

He responded quickly and effectively to the crisis and we ended up being the first country in the world with an effective vaccine programme as a

result, the first major economy to repeal all lockdown measures and with an economy well on the way to recovery when we did.

Secondly, he is the first Prime Minister almost in living memory to have to deal with a major war in Europe, one that even now is having significant economic consequences around the world.

It was a cruel irony that the tanks of Vladimir Putin rolled into Ukraine on the same day our lockdown measures were lifted.

The Russian tyrant thought that a disease-ravaged Europe would lie supine in the face of his unwarranted aggression.

He thought the economic chaos caused by his invasion would be the final domino that would make the West beg for peace.

I am proud to say that while some wavered in the face of that aggression, we, and Boris, did not.

It remains to be seen how the war in Ukraine turns out, but Boris can hold his head up high with how the matter was dealt with on his watch.

Thirdly of course, there was Brexit.

To listen to some voices after the 2016 referendum, you would have thought that merely attempting to enact Brexit would cause the sky to fall in

upon all our heads.

It turned out of course, that Brexit was quite literally the least of all our worries, and the process went relatively smoothly given everything else

going on at the time.

At his last Prime Ministers' Questions, Boris could proudly announce that we are currently exporting more to Europe than we did before Brexit.

The era of Boris will shortly be over and either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will become Prime Minister.

I suspect, however, that, love him or hate him, we will all shortly have a Boris shaped hole in our lives.

It is rare that so large and colourful a character becomes Prime Minister.

The history books will be interesting to read, especially for someone like myself who saw his rise and fall first hand.

I can say for certainty, however, that what you saw on TV was not an act.

Boris genuinely was like that in person, funny, amiable, likeable.

Well, we have come to the end of my article.

But what do you think? Could Boris Johnson be back one day?

As Boris said during his last Prime Minister’s Questions, Hasta la Vista, Baby!“