Why neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Boris Johnson can be trusted with our country – Andrew Vine

IT’S a thought that would be abhorrent to both of them, but Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn might be mirror images of each other, such are the similarities of their predicaments this week.
Do you trust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister?Do you trust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister?
Do you trust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister?

Credibility has become a stranger to both, and seemingly so has integrity. Shiftiness is a trademark, and so is the peculiar position of being adored by grassroots party members whilst being loathed by large numbers of their own MPs.

Each presides over irreconcilable splits in his party and operates in the absence of detailed, workable policy whilst simultaneously blustering that all is well and he knows exactly what he’s doing.

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David Cameron's memoirs have heightened the level of mistrust in politics.David Cameron's memoirs have heightened the level of mistrust in politics.
David Cameron's memoirs have heightened the level of mistrust in politics.

Both will be insisting on that more loudly than ever, but vast numbers of voters simply won’t believe a word. They won’t swallow what Mr Corbyn has to say today when he gives his keynote speech to the Labour conference, and nor will they be convinced when Mr Johnson responds to the Supreme Court ruling on whether he was underhand in proroguing Parliament, whichever way the finding goes.

And each mirrors the other in insisting that they have a detailed plan for breaking the Brexit deadlock, whilst all the evidence points to them floundering.

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We need to be worried about this dance of incompetence because out here in the real world, away from party political manoeuvrings, there are clear signs of trouble ahead.

Jeremy Corbyn remains under pressure at Labour's annual conference.Jeremy Corbyn remains under pressure at Labour's annual conference.
Jeremy Corbyn remains under pressure at Labour's annual conference.

Only yesterday, analysis by Make UK and BDO LLP pointed to Yorkshire being amongst the country’s worst-hit areas in the event of a no-deal Brexit on October 31. Our manufacturing sector could suffer a severe blow, and the impact of the economic shock prove disproportionately damaging because it would affect already disadvantaged areas.

Yet the mirror-image leaders are more concerned with shoring up their own positions than acting to safeguard businesses and the livelihoods of employees who depend upon them in our region.

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This is a disturbing spectacle, given that whenever a general election comes, both these men are asking for the nation’s trust.

The likelihood of Mr Corbyn winning that trust appears an outside bet, given that polling has given him the worst approval rating of any Labour leader since records began, Ordinarily, the sort of internecine warfare amongst an Opposition in disarray would be gift to a Prime Minister, but there’s little comfort to be found in it for Mr Johnson.

The parallels with the Labour leader are only likely to be reinforced by his own looming party conference, which won’t be any more harmonious. And by then, the Prime Minister could be in the uncomfortable – and possibly untenable – position of having been ruled against by the highest court in the land, with the implication that he misled the Queen over the suspension of Parliament.

Whether that happens or not, the fact that the allegation should have been levelled at all tells a troubling story about how we are being governed.

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It is that honesty and integrity cannot be taken for granted in politics any more. Nor is it possible to be confident that in matters of policy, the national interest will take precedence over party political considerations or personal ambitions.

Yet those are the charges being laid at the door of our Prime Minister and key members of the Government.

The accusation by former premier Sir John Major in a witness statement to the court that Mr Johnson had behaved like a “dishonest estate agent” is one of the gravest ever levelled at an occupant of Number 10.

That this court case should have coincided with the publication of David Cameron’s memoirs feels like a perfect storm engulfing the Government. Granted, Mr Cameron has a book to sell and an axe to grind in trying to salvage a tattered reputation. Even so, his characterisations of Mr Johnson and Michael Gove as deceitful and duplicitous, driven principally by their own ambitions, is deeply damaging.

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If they could not be trusted by the Prime Minister who believed them to be loyal team players, then how can the country be expected to trust them?

The same concerns about trust hover around Labour. Just as many Conservative MPs do not trust Mr Johnson and his inner circle, their counterparts on the Labour benches have no more faith in Mr Corbyn and his advisers. The leaders of our two main parties reflect each other uncannily, and not in any positive sense. For the rest of us, looking at this mirror image is an unsettling prospect.