Leadership of Brexit and the Conservative Party

Boris Johnson's leadership of the Conservative party is threatened and Nigel Farage is attacking progress on Brexit, but the real problem is poor leadership across the the political spectrum in the UK

Strategic vision, drive, passion, energy, determination, resilience, courage, attention to detail, the ability to plan, organise and communicate, and the adherence to the philosophy of ‘Serve to Lead’ are all important traits in leadership. However, to be successful, these must be deployed by the leader so as to deliver positive change for those they ‘serve to lead’, otherwise their leadership will be challenged and untenable.

Johnson, Farage and Brexit

Boris Johnson’s integrity has been questioned over ‘Partygate’ and Nigel Farage has said that the only way Johnson can stay in Number 10 is to “GET BREXIT DONE” [sic]. He's right regarding Brexit of course – in voting to leave the European Union the Nation expected borders, immigration, fisheries, trade etc to be dealt with efficiently, effectively and rapidly. But six years on and little of substance has changed. A good example is the Government’s failure to ‘take back control of our borders’ and stem the flow of migrants crossing the Channel. In fact that problem has grown significantly and continues to do so.

But Nigel Farage has himself shown as little leadership over actually getting things done as Boris has, indeed possibly less.

What ‘Mr Brexit’ has done is bring about a historic shift in the UK’s relationship with the EU. Without Nigel, the UK would still not have the opportunity to re-establish independence in all areas of law, government and public administration. What he has also done, and is incredibly good at, is to stand on the side lines, banging the drum and criticising everyone else. This is popular, emotive, arouses passion and his skill in this regard is what enabled him to influence David Cameron to hold the Referendum.

The importance of a Vision

However, what Nigel does not do, and has never done, is propose solutions. Nor does he offer a vision or direction for a post Brexit Britain. True, no other politician has done that either, but this is the massive and crucially missing piece in his and Boris's leadership as far as Brexit is concerned.

Without a well defined strategic vision for post Brexit Britain, and without that vision being clearly and effectively communicated, there can be no direction and will be no unity of purpose or unity of effort. Indeed, the lack of a vision for the Nation inevitably results in fragmentation and factionalisation as there is nothing in common to hold disparate groups within political parties or society together.

A national leader must define a common vision and drive the machinery of the state as well as the passion and enthusiasm of the people towards achieving a set of commonly agreed goals, to retain support, establish unity and govern effectively; in other words, to lead. Both Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have failed in this regard. No politician has sincerely attempted to do it, and without someone doing so, Brexit will never be done as many of us demand.

The need for Courage

Of course, politicians will always avoid setting out clearly what it is that they expect to achieve. If they do, the world is such that they will almost inevitably fall short in some way and will then be attacked by a somewhat rabid media that seeks to create scandal and disappointment at every turn. If they do fall short, then no matter how determined their efforts have been, they will suffer politically. They wish to avoid such a situation and they therefore steer clear of making promises. But, to undermine progress for fear of criticism is already a leadership failure of epic proportions. My sincere belief is that politicians should only be driven by a wish to achieve good things for the people, businesses and institutions of the Nation they serve. They must not allow themselves to be deterred from doing so by those with other self-serving agendas. A crucial trait of leadership is therefore courage, courage in spades.

The ability to Plan, Organise and Communicate

Vision and courage are not in themselves sufficient. A leader must also possess an outstanding ability to direct planning, and to organise and communicate effectively.

We all plan, for example most of us can plan the weekly food shop. Whether Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage, or any other politician for that matter, can do this is a moot point, but that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is the ability to coordinate the great institutions and departments of State, so as to unite and drive all their efforts towards attaining a common set of national objectives, which in turn will enable the Nation to achieve meaningful progress. Very sadly Boris Johnson’s performance in this regard has been disappointing and, as a result, government is largely lacking in strategic cohesion and consistency. However, there is also no evidence that any other leading figure, regardless of party, would do any better. Most would probably be worse.

In the Brexit context, nobody on either side of the debate – Cameron, Farage, May, Corbyn, Johnson, Starmer, Farron, or Davey – presented any vision, strategy or plan for the future of the UK outside the EU. Leadership across the board has been appallingly weak and the Nation is still, six years later, laking direction, and continues to suffer as a result. I’ve always said:

“The risk of Brexit was never in leaving the EU, but in having a government and politicians too negligent or incompetent to lead and manage the process.”

Enthusiasm for delivery

I fervently believe that leader must have great enthusiasm for practical delivery and demonstrate the capacity to coordinate, lead, direct and establish cohesion across multiple departments, institutions and agencies of government. Worryingly, I presently see no leading politician in Britain able to credibly claim such acumen. Boris sets a low bar that, none the less, nobody else appears able to reach. All leading politicians and MPs score particularly poorly when it comes to the ability to plan and organise coherently at the strategic level.

Attention to Detail as a prerequisite for success

There is a view amongst some leading politicians, with whom I’ve discussed the subject, that they should not have to concern themselves with detail. Of course, a leader must be able to issue tasks and to delegate, but in my opinion, a leader who does not pay attention to detail cannot and would not be able ensure realistic ambition and pace, or unity of effort. They would therefore be found wanting when attempting to lead government, drive the State to deliver real and positive change.

A leader must be attentive to, and pursue, all the means, however small, that could promote success, and must also be aware of all the threats to progress. That unquestionably requires attention to detail.

The need to deliver progress towards the vision and aspirations of those led

A leader will be unable to lead, or sustain their leadership position, unless they are perceived as being able to deliver benefit for those led. Indeed, a leader is only relevant to the people s/he leads as long as they are the best person to help them to progress to whatever their aspirations may be - their vision and objectives. That is why a leader cannot succeed unless the truly adopt the philosophy of ‘serve to lead’. That said, the reality is that very few politicians adopt that approach to their work. Instead, the majority spend most of their time trying to sell, to their party and the electorate, their abilities whilst not actually pursuing a belief in service to others, or the capacity or experience to lead and deliver for those they are supposed serve. This damning indictment of the integrity of the vast majority of our politicians, at national and local level, illustrates the most serious flaw in British politics, and it is why British politicians, political parties, governments and Prime Ministers are so often a deep disappointment, and it explains the deep cynicism the public has towards politicians.

To address this huge failing, political parties must ensure they select and appoint as candidates for public office, whether at the national or local level, only those with the experience, skills, acumen, passion, energy, resilience and attitude (as described above) to lead and who sign up entirely to the philosophy of ‘serving to lead’.

If, on the other hand, parties persist in appointing second rate individuals because they are easily led and managed, or because they simply tick a box, Britain will never again see a true Statesman or Stateswoman at the helm of government, Brexit will never be “done” and the Nation’s full potential, confidence, optimism, prosperity and security will never be realised.

After thoughts…

Returning to adherence to the philosophy of ‘Serve to Lead’, this means that any leader, at any level, whether a Member of Parliament or a Lance Corporal in the army, places the interests of those they lead, before their own. Yet, all too often, our politicians and political leaders demonstrate far greater interest in establishing, maintaining and protecting their own position, status and ego than in serving the interests of, and delivering positive change for, the people they are supposed to serve.

Energy, determination and agility are other vital characteristics that a leader requires in order to be effective. A leader must have the drive, passion, determination, dynamism and resilience to cut through the obstacles and maintain government on it’s course to achieve the strategic objectives. However, they must also have the confidence and agility to respond to new information and evolving circumstances. The combination of these characteristics in one person, particularly at strategic level, is a great deal more difficult to find than people like to admit – they’re the sort of skills that everyone in any senior position would like to believe they possess but generally do not – it’s a crucial combination none the less. It’s also important to note that people who demonstrate determination and agility in personal life, or in small organisational or operational settings, are often entirely unable to exercise the same at the highly complex strategic level of national government. This makes early identification of effective high level leaders challenging for political parties, yet the early identification of such people is vital if individuals with the qualities to lead the Nation effectively in future are to be in a position to do so. Frankly, Britain’s future depends upon it.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, Boris Johnson’s integrity has been called into question over ‘Partygate’, and so, his enemies suggest, he is not fit to lead the Conservative Party or the country. So, is integrity so important in leadership?

Well, it depends. If we are taking about integrity equalling trust in the context of steering the great institutions and departments of State to deliver positive effect for the Nation, then yes, integrity is vital. However, do infringements of administrative rules governing social gatherings constitute such a serious breach of trust that, for example, the people of this Nation, for that specific reason, do not believe the Prime Minister is any longer competent to make decisions about the UK’s support to Ukraine or to represent us at the G7?

My own opinion is that, whilst Boris Johnson has shown poor judgement regarding regarding ‘Partygate’, those people in politics or the media who attempt to make the immense jump to link 'partygate’ to leadership over Brexit, the economy, the environment, Ukraine etc, do so simply to weaken the Prime Minister for their own ends, rather than those of the country. They have failed to win the argument on whatever topic it may be, e.g. Brexit, through debate, and now seek to get their way by trying suggesting that having a few drinks in Downing Street in violation of Covid restrictions means that the Prime Minister is incompetent and unsafe in all matters of national policy and must therefore be removed. I find this approach both bizarre and itself lacking in judgement.

By placing their own interests first, they - rebellious Conservative Back-Benchers who place their own parliamentary career before anything else, along with ‘Remainers’ and those who are ideologically opposed to the Conservative Party or conservatism, demonstrate their own unsuitability for leadership. My message to them is that, in a democracy, if you want to attack a Prime Minister for his/her decisions on Brexit, the economy or any other topic, or even their general ability to deliver positive change, you do so by debating and putting forward solutions regarding those subjects so as to convince the electorate on arguments of policy merit, any other course is mendacious, undemocratic and itself lacking in moral judgment and integrity.