Payne, Sebastian (16 November 2011). "How true to life is Channel 4's Fresh Meat?". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 20 October 2019. Author: Sebastian Payne". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016 . Retrieved 8 December 2022. Boris Johnson got me into paying more attention to politics when he became Prime Minister in 2019. He uncovered my hidden Conservative views and made me want to learn more about the Party, and it's history. I've always thought he had a charisma about him from when I saw him on Have I Got News For You. Are the Tories better off since Johnson resigned? No. The economy is terrible; their polling is far worse; Labour’s victory seems all but guaranteed. Brexit is questioned again. We have gone from tax cuts, under Truss, to tax rises, under Rishi - and all without the consolations of good humour.

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Featuring interviews with local people, plus major political figures from both parties – including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – Payne explores the significant role these social and economic forces, decades in the making, played in this fundamental upheaval of the British political landscape.

Boris Johnson was touted as the saviour of the country and the Conservative Party, obtaining a huge commons majority and finally 'getting Brexit done'. But, within three short years, he was deposed in disgrace and left the country in crisis. The Fall of Boris Johnson is the explosive inside account of how a prime minister lost his hold on power. Written and read by Sebastian Payne, Director of Onward and former Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times . After reading the first volume of Margaret Thatchers biography, I thought I'd read a more modern book concerning a Prime Minister. I must admit I got this book purely on the basis that it was about Boris Johnson. Yes, it's not a book that is from his better days but it is a necessary read.His government was always reactive, rather than proactive. His only two successes were reactions to issues as they came up. Where was the proactive policymaking to deliver on the 2019 manifesto? Instead time was spent trying to privatise C4 and dealing, every day, with the scandals that the government failed to control. That may be part of the story. But the alleged “bourgeoisification” of the red wall does not explain why, when Ronnie Campbell and his wife went canvassing in Blyth in 2019, “there were more Labour votes in the posh areas than there were in the council estates”. The true trauma of December 2019 was that Labour lost its emotional rapport with the less well-off. And throughout his road trip, Payne encounters again and again the desire for a restoration of what Phil Wilson – defeated in Tony Blair’s former seat of Sedgefield – describes as “communality”. This surely, rather than aspirational individualism, drove the Brexit revolt among the working class; a desire that places should be able to take charge of their collective destinies again. As Payne points out, Boris Johnson made sure that the Conservative party reaped the electoral rewards of the insurgency.

Originally from the North East himself, Payne sets out to uncover the real story behind the red wall and what turned these seats blue. Beginning in Blyth Valley in the North East and ending in Burnley, with visits to constituencies across the Midlands and Yorkshire along the way, Payne gets to the heart of a key political story of our time that will have ramifications for years to come. Wilson makes his observation over lunch with Payne in his local pub. Their conversation is one of countless enlightening discussions in the book, which take place amid various levels of Covid restrictions in art galleries, pubs, cafes and community centres. Payne’s passion and personal engagement with his subject seems to charm many of his interviewees into opening up in fascinating ways. Labour’s crisis in the red wall, and the party’s attempts to resolve it, will shape the future of English politics. This engrossing, warm and insightful work is an indispensable guide to how it came about. Johnson always acted in his own short-term interest. Every time a scandal blew up, his strategy was to just keep fighting until the next day. This allowed the narrative of a scandal-ridden government to gain momentum. If each scandal had been dealt with immediately, in a single swoop, then it would have been harder for such a narrative to dominate.Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England (Pan Macmillan, 2021) ISBN 978-1529067361