Boris Johnson has a knack for evading responsibility, but the consequences of the long Tory incumbency are catching up with him
The Conservative party gathers in Manchester on Sunday for an 11th consecutive annual conference as a party in government. It is the first time the Tories will meet in person since Britain left the European Union. Last year’s jamboree was a virtual affair.
Brexit, followed immediately by the pandemic, created an illusion of rupture from the era of Theresa May and David Cameron. Boris Johnson speaks about problems facing the country – social inequalities and underinvestment, for example – as if they are the legacy of some party other than his own. In Manchester, ministers will boast of their ambitions for “levelling up” parts of the country, without noting that a root cause of disadvantage to those regions is the decade of Tory government they have endured.
