Boris Johnson’s own “personality and behaviour” led to his eventual downfall as prime minister, said BBC broadcaster Laura Kuenssberg.
The corporation’s former political editor said she was “shocked” at the “pace and scale of the moves against Johnson” by Tory ministers last month, but added: “It’s always brutal at the end.”
She also compared Johnson’s demise to Jenga, telling Vogue: “One piece comes out, and then another, and it gets wobblier, then it stabilises, but then when it actually crashes, it crashes really quickly and really messily.”
Kuenssberg said Johnson was guilty of “denial” as Tory ministers and junior aides resigned en masse in early July. “I think it’s clear that until very late that last night, there was a real sense of denial.”
She also revealed that The Spectator’s summer party – attended by senior Tory figures after the revolt against Johnson – was like being in a “tropical jungle” which was “very hot, very wild and very bizarre”.
Describing the event as “hilarious”, Kuenssberg recalled “a stand-up row” between members of the different Tory factions in the heated aftermath of the putsch.
She added: “They’d slain the beast who’d been pushing them all around for so long. The next generation was prowling around, trying to build new alliances and grab the plumpest, juiciest fruit for themselves.”
Guto Harri, Johnson’s communications chief at No 10, reportedly got into a heated altercation with a key aide to Michael Gove at the summer drinks bash last month.
No 10 sources called Gove a “snake” when the then-levelling up secretary was fired soon after telling Johnson the game was up and he should resign.
Kuenssberg spoke about how “horrible” the world of media and politics can be for young women, as she prepares to take up her new role replacing Andrew Marr on the BBC’s Sunday morning politics programme.
“We have to be alive to how horrible it can be, particularly for people starting out, and support them where we can,” she told the magazine.
“It drives me crazy that young people coming into the industry – and particularly young women – might look at what’s happened online and think, ‘That is not a place for me.’”
But Kuenssberg said there had been positive progress during her own time at Westminster. “Is it a perfect working environment? Absolutely not. Is it an accurate mirror of the country we all live in? Absolutely not.
“But is it more open now than it was when I started? Yes. Is inappropriate behaviour taken more seriously? Yes.”
