Caroline Kenyon

Boris Johnson was declared Prime Minister of the United Kingdom last week.

I do not recognise him as such.

I do not respect the process by which he has claimed this high, privileged office and I regard him as a disgrace, a man who brings shame and dishonour upon our wonderful country.

I shall happily explain why.

He was voted in by 92,000 votes from members of the Conservative Party. This cohort was largely male, white, over 60 – wholly unrepresentative of this country of 66 million people – but also, hypocritically, included members as young as 15 who are not permitted to vote in elections.

More people voted in the poll to name our new polar research boat (result: Boaty McBoatface) than in this apparent coronation.

He has now declared that we will leave, deal or no deal, no ifs or buts, on 31 October. A man with NO mandate from the country to be our premier, tells us that we will take the most high-risk path that any Western, civilised nation has ever taken, a path that was never on the ballot paper, never discussed in the Referendum debate (“easiest deal in history”, “settled over a cup of tea in an afternoon” “exact same benefits”).

This is nothing more or less than a coup.

But it is not just the man’s political intent with regard to Brexit that means I do not recognise him.

I will not recognise a man of such moral bankruptcy, in both his private life or his public life, as my leader.

This is a man for whom the consequences of his actions are irrelevant, the pain of others of no significance so long as he gains what he, Boris Johnson, craves.

Victims of his narcissistic cruelty run from Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, who was chained to bed in an Iranian psychiatric hospital last week, her prison sentence extended after Johnson’s lazy, incorrect statement as Foreign Secretary that she had been teaching journalism.

To Sir Kim Darroch, our former Ambassador to the United States who was forced to resign two weeks ago. His crime? Simply doing his job, as all ambassadors do, by reporting back to the UK the truth of the chaotic incompetence of the Trump administration, somehow mysteriously leaked to the press. But Johnson, so eager to ingratiate with Trump, refused to support our loyal representative and Darroch’s 40-year distinguished career ended overnight.

To his estranged wife and four children, deeply wounded by his repeated infidelities.

Add to the mix his blatant pandering to his paymasters. His leadership campaign attracted an astonishing £500,000 from hedge fund managers (who will make a killing when the pound collapses further on No Deal) and arms dealers, while his campaign managers included tobacco and sugar lobbyists.

It stinks to high heaven.

And that is before his cavalier attitude to public money. The disgusting scandal of the Garden Bridge which wasted £49 million of taxpayers’ money with absolutely nothing to show for it. That’s nothing to Johnson, who said of his £275,000 fee from the Daily Telegraph for his writing that it was “chickenfeed”.

But to a little business like mine, it would take an astonishing 2,000 years for us to generate that amount of tax. And for what? Nothing.

I do not and I will not recognise a man who has lied and cheated his way to the top. So, Mr Boris Johnson, as far as I am concerned, you are a squatter in Downing Street, with as little right to be there as if you had broken in with a camp bed and sleeping bag.

Not in my name.

When we cast our votes almost three years ago, some of us, myself included, voted Remain because we felt, though the EU is far from perfect, that we would be better off in than out.

Here we are, just days away from our scheduled departure and Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement rejected by Parliament, teetering on the edge of a precipice. No deal would be catastrophic. 

Some on the other side of the argument still call it Project Fear. Doctors I know are struggling to prescribe already due to drug shortages – apparently 160 standard drugs are already in short supply.

We will fall out of every treaty – all 750 of them – and out of 40 agencies, including Euratom which supplies isotopes for cancer treatment. Supermarkets are holding their breath and have stockpiled as much as they can, the army is on standby.

We already have higher food prices than before the referendum. Countless High Street shops gone into administration, caught in the perfect storm of increased business rates and online shopping, weaker consumer confidence and less money in our pockets to spend. House of Fraser and Debenhams are hanging by a thread, while Marks & Spencer is closing stores and another huge government contractor, Interserve, looks likely to implode like Carillion.

It all feels very fragile. The world is fragmenting, old alliances are breaking, the global economy is slowing and there are huge threats to our way of life from climate change. 

I’ve spent the last three years engaging with people constantly about Brexit and, in the last few months, I have felt a real sea change in attitude. 

I wholly respect those who voted Leave, but I know more and more who have changed their mind. Or, perhaps, if they have not changed their mind, they see how complex, expensive and simply energy sapping it is. They rightly want us to focus on our schools, our hospitals, our elderly and disabled, our prisons, our armed forces. 

Lincoln has so much going for it but we all know that the goodies are not evenly shared out. The wonderful people who run the food banks have seen exponential growth in demand for what they offer. We are vulnerable and I believe this city deserves so much better.

So for that reason, tomorrow, I will be marching in London for every man, woman and child in Lincoln to have the chance to stop this cliff-edge disaster. So we can vote on the Prime Minister’s plan and tell her whether or not we want it. 

If the people say they want her plan, so be it. We will leave the EU and then spend another five years in negotiation. 

But if they say they do not, then we can remain and work to rebuild this fantastic country and our beloved Lincoln so that everyone shares in the success.