By Nina L. Khrushcheva
MOSCOW – One of Queen Elizabeth II’s final acts was to accept the resignation of disgraced Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the most mendacious and incompetent of the 15 prime ministers who led the United Kingdom during her 70-year reign. No one could highlight, at least by contrast, the Queen’s strengths better than Britain’s unprincipled populist.
Johnson was the only prime minister ever to draw the Queen directly – even deliberately – into scandal. In 2019, he asked her to prorogue (suspend) Parliament so that he could avoid resistance – or, indeed, any form of political scrutiny – as he pushed through Britain’s exit from the European Union. The UK’s Supreme Court quickly countermanded that action, ruling unanimously that Johnson’s request was illegal. And this was hardly the only scandal that plagued Johnson’s premiership; on the contrary, it was a steady stream of misconduct that forced him out.