Why John Major and past premiers critical of Boris Johnson should take a vow of silence – Bernard Ingham

Prime Minister Boris Johnson rewards failure as politics goes to the dogs - Tom Richmond

I feel entitled to offer this counsel since I told Margaret Thatcher that her “backseat driving”, as it was called, when Major succeeded her, would do her great damage. She calmed down before, sadly, dementia took hold.

Criticising your successor does not merely bring up all your failings in office and invite the condemnation of hypocrisy, it is discourteous and can look condescending. If you can’t contain your thoughts, find a 
way of delivering them personally.

But there is a political reason why they would better keep their barbs to themselves. In this case, it merely tars Boris Johnson’s critics with the Remainer brush and their refusal to accept the will of the people. It is also a far more arrogant example of elitism than “partygate”.

Talk about one rule for them – membership of the EU – and one for the thick-as-two-planks proletariat!

Which brings me to the substance of John Major’s gripe, apart from Boris damaging democracy. He said that Britain’s reputation abroad was being “shredded”, risking losing friends and allies.

I fully accept that Boris is and looks something of a maverick. He came to office with a reputation for being economical with the truth.

Nor does he seem to care what he looks like, whether it be his hair, his general untidiness or his willingness to be seen dangling from a high wire with a Union Jack in each hand.

He has an underlying and sometimes disconcerting sense of humour that probably helps to explain his undoubted resilience given the enormity of the Covid financial legacy confronting his Government.

I can see why people abroad might regard him as eccentric and something of a figure of fun. But they miss the point: he is a serious politician.

He got Brexit more or less done, knocked the hard Left Jeremy Corbyn into an electoral cocked hat and presided over such a Covid vaccination programme that we are leading the world out of the pandemic. Economic growth is also bounding back.

And what is he up to in the face of Vladimir Putin’s designs on Ukraine. No, he is not running off to the Kremlin like French President Emmanuel Macron and proposing a Ukrainian settlement without so much as by-your-leave from Kiev.

Instead, he goes to the front line to declare his solidarity with an independent Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is regarded as a potential wet rag in the face of Russian expansionism.

And no one can doubt that Boris has greater command of the dangerous situation than 
US president Joe Biden, who at one stage virtually invited a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Never has it been more clearly demonstrated to the world that Britain may have left the EU but not Europe.

This suggests to me that Remainers are so dedicated to the federal model of a United States of Europe that they are impelled to throw anything and everything at Boris for implementing the Brexit will of the people.

They seem blind to signs that the concept has had its day. After all, a Polish Minister has seen it as an attempt to form the Fourth Reich. There is also evidence of Gerxit and Fraxit in the two leading protagonists of federalism – France and Germany – as well as unrest over the idea in Hungary.

The plain truth is that the 
PM’s predecessors got it wrong. The obsession of John Major, like Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson before him, in shadowing the D-Mark was so costly that it eventually blew up in Major’s face in 1992. Then a single European currency virtually bankrupted the south of Europe.

This prize trio may have been instrumental in getting rid of Margaret Thatcher but she had the last laugh on them.

If only the EEC had heeded her Bruges advice in 1989 to go for a freely co-operating association of sovereign states, the world might be in a safer place now.

In short, Brexiteer Boris may be shambolic but he is no laughing matter.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app, receive exclusive members-only offers and access to all premium content and columns. Click here to subscribe.