Boris Johnson's strange, off-books diplomatic escapades
When your former prime ministers are unpredictable grifters, that might be a problem
I should think that, for David Cameron, getting a notification of an incoming text message from Boris Johnson is not something that fills him with much joy. This was the method Johnson used to inform then-Prime Minister Cameron of his decision to back leave in the Brexit campaign. It was also how he informed the now Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron that he was en route to Venezuela for a meeting with President Nicolas Maduro. Not telling someone what you’re doing until it is too late for them to stop you is a tell-tale sign. When Johnson chose to inform Cameron of his plans he deliberately left it until it was too late to unwind these plans.
A lot about this meeting is confusing, to put in mildly. We learned that Johnson was on holiday in the Dominican Republic when the opportunity arose and he hopped on a short flight by private jet to Caracas. Although Cameron had no prior warning of the visit, it is also claimed that it took place with “active support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office”, which suggests they were bounced into it. Given that Britain’s relations with Venezuela are at a historic low point it’s not impossible that the meeting proved mildly useful from a UK perspective: no British diplomat will have met Maduro in recent years and you can imagine that Johnson provided some sort of brief back to Cameron afterwards.
But none of this helps us understand why he was there at all. Johnson had been staying in the Caribbean villa of Canadian businessman Sam Blyth, who is regularly described as his ‘cousin’. In January last year I wrote a post which attempted to unpick their specific relationship, since Johnson had argued that as a ‘family member’ he was not obliged to disclose an £800,000 loan guarantee that Blyth had given him. This was stretching the concept of ‘family’ to its limit as Johnson had needed to be introduced to Blyth by another person - Richard Sharp - who is definitely not any kind of relative but had been a business contact of Blyth’s. As I discovered last year, the relationship between Johson and Blyth appears to be second cousins twice removed. This is very clearly not what is meant by allowing ‘family members’ to have financial arrangements with politicians on a different basis to members of the public.
But all this feels rather dated: when Johnson needed Blyth’s financial support, he was struggling to make ends meet after a divorce and a sharp drop in income from his earnings in the private sector to the measly £165,000 paid to the Prime Minister (with free housing in central London thrown in). But these difficulties are long behind him. Since leaving the House of Commons he has earned upwards of £5 million a year, enabling him to buy a moated manor house in Oxfordshire, among other things. It’s interesting that he still continues to borrow Blyth’s Dominican Republic villa, but this is a reminder of the fact that Johnson’s reputation for dishonesty is matched only by his reputation for never knowingly having bought his round.
So we can guess why Johnson was in the Caribbean: the lure of a free holiday, even when you are making enough money to buy yourself a Caribbean villa every year, is hard to resist. But we still don’t know why he went to Venezuela. There is no evidence of his having had a strong interest in the place beforehand. He has never been able to resist the obvious ‘Caracas’ pun, but this isn’t evidence of any particular knowledge or understanding of it. We are led to believe that Johnson’s visit to Caracas was to encourage Venezuela, which has taken Russia’s side on most issues, to be more supportive of Ukraine. But we only have Johnson’s word to go on, which is worth literally nothing. Was he, for instance, being used to lobby Maduro for some commercial purpose, with the mentions of Ukraine merely incidental? Was someone paying him to carry out this mission? We have no way of knowing.
[UPDATE, 16 March: since I wrote this the Financial Times has reported that Johnson’s trip to Caracas was paid for by a hedge fund manager keen to improve UK-Caracas relations. This tells us who paid for the private jet that ferried Johnson there, but not whether he was paid and what the benefit to the hedge fund might be.]
But what we do know is that Johnson likes back-channels, intrigue and private diplomatic endeavours. According to the excellent team at Tortoise, in April 2018, during his one of his frequent attendances at orgies hosted by KGB oligarch Alexander Lebedev at his castle in Perugia, Johnson (who had dispensed with his usual security team) was planning to get involved in some kind of off-books discussion with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, facilitated by Lebedev. In the event the call never happened, but not thanks to any sagacity on Johnson’s part (he overslept, no doubt exhausted by a night of strenuous social intercourse).
Since stepping down as prime minister, Johnson has also showed up in Ukraine and Israel, on both occasions behaving as if he is acting in a quasi-official capacity, no doubt to the dismay of the current government. And we have also witnessed the increasingly dire spectacle of Liz Truss travelling the world to tell us how she is going to ‘save the West’. From her recent visit to CPAC it looks as though her primary plan for saving it is to stand on stage with fascists promoting ‘deep state’ conspiracy theories.
Former prime ministers represent a conundrum: they are an unusual type of private citizen whose views and experiences are given a high value by many in the business and international scene, even if the real value of these might be questionable. With the possible exception of Gordon Brown, every living British prime minister seems focused on getting stinking rich from selling their knowledge. The degree to which this is problematic is mostly a measure of character. In the case of Theresa May and John Major, it is probably mostly harmless. Tony Blair is capable of being a thoughtful and positive voice in public affairs at the same time as being over-involved with some of the worst leaders globally (so a bit like his time as Prime Minister). And Boris Johnson and Liz Truss combine a lack of moral integrity with poor judgement and basic dishonesty to be dangerous unguided missiles bouncing around the world. The nightmare of their time in power has not, sadly, ended with their departing Downing Street.
A most interesting read.
That Boris's visit to Carcus was paid for by a Hedge Fund manager seeking various improvements in relations is one thing, but it is all still quite curious.
"a reminder of the fact that Johnson’s reputation for dishonesty is matched only by his reputation for never knowingly having bought his round" - great line!!