Gathered with his team at the reception in Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, he and guests swapped stories of the six-week contest over salmon mousse and sausages on sticks. They toasted the triumph with glasses of premium rosé champagne. The entertainment was a magician performing card tricks.
A media star with a gift for comedy, Johnson won fame and fans among the British public in a way few politicians ever achieve. But the people’s touch never before had translated into acceptance among his peers in the Westminster. In the corridors and cafes of the U.K. Parliament during the summer of 2018, Johnson often cut a solitary figure. His hands would be stuffed into his pockets, shoulders hunched, as he shuffled through the atrium on his own or with a loyal friend.
Another key figure in Johnson’s career was also on the phone with him daily: Lynton Crosby, the Australian election consultant who delivered him two terms as London mayor and helped win general elections for Cameron in 2015 and Scott Morrison in Australia this year. Williamson brought experience organizing MPs as the government’s former chief whip, but Shapps had a different weapon: a sophisticated spreadsheet on which he had mapped all his Tory colleagues and their leadership preferences.
All this preparation meant that when May quit and the leadership campaign formally began in early June, Johnson was ready. The duo of Shapps and Williamson took on the work of marshaling MPs to vote for their man. As the voting unfolded the following day, the Johnson team’s data became increasingly sophisticated. Shapps was eventually able to predict exactly that Johnson would win 114 votes during that first round of the contest before the result was declared.
I see a movie coming...