Tumbling down his own landslide: How Boris Johnson lost his invincibility.

LONDON — When Boris Johnson gained a landslide election victory for his Conservative Party in 2019, he loomed as a colossus over British politics, the person who had redrawn the nation’s political map with a vow to “get Brexit done.”

With an 80-seat majority in Parliament, the best amassed by a Conservative chief since Margaret Thatcher in 1987, Mr. Johnson appeared assured of 5 years in energy. Some analysts predicted a cushty decade in 10 Downing Street for Mr. Johnson, probably the most dependable vote-getter in British politics.

Now, simply two and a half years after that triumph, Mr. Johnson’s political invincibility has been shattered. He stands on the point of being compelled to resign amid a brand new wave of cupboard resignations and outrage from fellow Tories.

To some extent, Mr. Johnson’s standing crumbled due to the identical confounding mixture of strengths and foibles that propelled his rise: uncommon political instinct offset by breathtaking private recklessness; a way of historical past not matched by a corresponding sense of how he ought to conduct himself as a pacesetter; uncanny folks abilities vitiated by a transactional fashion that earned him few allies and left him remoted at harmful moments.

It is that final high quality, analysts say, that made Mr. Johnson so weak to the setbacks he has suffered. With no underlying ideology past Brexit and no community of political associates, the prime minister lost the help of lawmakers in his occasion when it grew to become clear they might not depend on him to win the following election.

“Johnson’s such an accomplished escape artist, and his colleagues so craven and cowardly that you can’t rule out him living to fight another day,” mentioned Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “But for what precisely? ‘There’s no there there,’ as the saying goes.”