Comment LONDON — What’s next for Boris Johnson, the most ubiquitous, omnivorous British politician of his age, once loved, now not, who delivered Brexit to Britain but is now exiting the world stage as a toxic pundit? Assuming the prime minister makes it through the coming months until his successor takes over, here’s a list of his likely duties: First, Johnson needs money, to live the luxurious life he lives now, surrounded by the best of the best. The finest antiques, paintings, wine and sausages. He’s going to want a lot of them. So there might be newspaper columns, more books, speeches. Before becoming prime minister, Johnson was Britain’s highest-paid newspaper columnist. So he has this to fall back on if he can get it. But with Johnson leaving in pseudo-disgrace, branded unfit to lead by his own party because of the scandals and all the lies he’s told, his path forward is difficult. His biographers, including his enemies and enemies and friends, say Johnson is not very good with money and is always complaining about being broke. This weekend, Johnson, his wife and children are at Chequers, a 1,500-acre 16th-century manor house, a “grace and favor” cottage for top government officials with 10 bedrooms, a chef and a large staff . Johnson loves Cheques. It’s the happy part of him. He wanted to hold his official wedding party with Carey there in July, until he scrapped the idea after a barrage of criticism. After he leaves the office? It is not clear where the Johnsons – he 58, she 34 – will live. Her flat in London? Where the neighbors hauled the couple off to the police for having an argument over wine, with Carrie shouting ‘get over me’ and ‘you just don’t care, why are you spoiled’? It’s not likely. Boris Johnson blames “the herd” and resigns as British Prime Minister Johnson has two ex-wives and seven children. With his new wife, Carrie, he has a baby and a toddler. The prime minister, the son of a diplomat, went to Eton College and Oxford University. This is an expensive education. “So he thrives on being the center of attention and will be yesterday’s man as soon as he leaves the office,” said Catherine Barnard, a law fellow at Cambridge University. “He can play house husband, he can write columns for the Daily Telegraph and get paid large sums of money for it, larger sums for corporate things, but I suspect he will get very bored.” Many speculate that Johnson will eventually return to his former profession of journalism. Writing a weekly note for the Daily Telegraph was lucrative, $330,000 a year, which fellow hackers estimated earned him over $2,750 an hour. In one of his last columns there, in 2018, Johnson wrote that burqa women looked like “bank robbers”. He also owes a publisher a biography on William Shakespeare, which he has not completed. He essentially completed a biography of his idol, Winston Churchill, which some critics called a worthless rehashing, without insight, scholarship or new material, but which the reviewer in the Financial Times called “crunchy, rough, full of the kind of nastiness. -Bam short sentences that keep the reader scrolling down.” Most believe he will also join the after-dinner speaking circuit, where it is thought he could easily command $100,000 or more for a talk. “He’s going to keep playing,” said Andrew Gimson, author of the “Boris” biography. “He will write books, do journalism, give speeches. Unlike some famous speakers, he can be relied upon to give an entertaining speech. And he can now give a speech as someone who has had fun at the G-7 in Cornwall and knows Biden and knows Zelensky.” Gimson said Johnson would also plan to return to what the prime minister called in his resignation speech “the best job in the world”. In that speech on Thursday, resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party, Johnson made no apology. Instead, he blamed his own party for his downfall, comparing his fellow MPs to stuffed animals. “As we saw at Westminster” when “the herd moves, it moves. And my friends, in politics, no one is absolutely necessary,” Johnson said. Because Boris Johnson eventually resigned and Donald Trump never did Gimson said Johnson would try to become prime minister again. “I don’t see any sign that he has left politics. In his resignation speech he said, “I will give the leader as much support as I can.” Well, that might not be much support at all.’ Gimson said Johnson “is a very competitive person, he will keep himself in the public eye. He will make incredible money. He will still be a big figure, firing on all cylinders.” Tom Bower, author of “Boris Johnson, The Gambler,” predicted Johnson could fetch more than $3 million for his memoir if it’s juicy. “The question is how honest it will be. David Cameron got a million for a book that was boring,” Bower said, adding that former prime minister Tony Blair wrote a memoir that “was more revealing and a better seller. That’s the question though. Is he ready to tell the truth about his marriages? His attitude towards other people? Is he ready to settle misdeeds? He’s a good writer, but what matters is whether he’s ready to deliver the headlines.” Bauer said Johnson will hope to return to the highest office in the land. “He believes, in the long run, that there is a realistic possibility of a political comeback, that in the end, there will be a Churchill appeal to him as the only man who can save the party,” he said. “A lot depends on how he behaves from now on. I thought his resignation speech was not only defiant, but he admitted that he didn’t make mistakes and said that he had been stabbed in the back and would come back. I think that’s the way to interpret it,” Bauer said. Someday soon, Johnson will formally tender his resignation as British Prime Minister. He will give a final speech outside 10 Downing Street. He will meet Queen Elizabeth II and tell her he is leaving. Removal trucks will pull up to the prime minister’s residence and take away his belongings, though perhaps not the wallpaper, which reportedly cost $1,100 a roll. If Johnson wants to climb back to the top, he will have to be a Member of Parliament, so he can choose to keep his seat in the House of Commons and serve on the backbenches, representing Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a suburb in West London. . Other British prime ministers returned, including Churchill, who served from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. More recently, Harold Wilson, a Labor politician, served as prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and in then returned for a second stint from 1974 to 1976. How Boris Johnson went from landslide victory to lack of confidence While some of Johnson’s predecessors retained this job in Parliament, others withdrew from politics altogether. Former Prime Minister Theresa May continued to sit in the House of Commons and serve her constituents, with whom she remains a popular figure. He has largely left management to do its thing, but has brought a blister or two. Her predecessor, David Cameron, left politics almost immediately. He held many posts, including the chairmanship of Alzheimer’s Research UK. Cameron wrote a book called “For the Record,” for $960,000. He also took up advisory positions for a number of companies, including Greensill Capital, where the opposition decried his lobbying as “zealous”. A parliamentary report concluded that his actions were not criminal but showed a “significant lack of judgment”. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has worked for the United Nations in the field of global education and campaigns to end child poverty. Blair also founded his own non-profit organization, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and became Middle East envoy for the Quartet, a grouping of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. But he also pursued lucrative work in the private sector, creating what critics argued was a conflict of interest. However, Johnson may want to continue to support Ukraine in some way. Former Prime Minister John Major remained a Member of Parliament for four years before taking on various roles in business and the sport of cricket. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be a conventional path for a former prime minister. But Johnson is not a conventional politician. Adam Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.
