We will now find out what a triumphant Boris Johnson really wants and believes | Andrew Rawnsley
To keep his promises, the Tories must pay a lot more heed to areas of Britain that have been strangers to the party for decades
Power always reveals. Robert Caro, the brilliant biographer of Lyndon Johnson, puts it extremely well: “When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary.”
This insight came to mind when considering the prospects for our country now that another politician called Johnson has secured a great deal of power. His successful gamble on a snap election has just taken the Conservatives to their largest parliamentary majority since Margaret Thatcher was at her zenith in 1987. This will make him unchallengeable within his party for the foreseeable future. A lot of the fresh faces and many of the grizzled ones on the Tory benches in the new parliament will feel a deep personal debt to the man who delivered on his primary promise to his party, which was that he would win them an election.