Divisions already sabotaging Johnson's desire to unite UK

The challenge of the task ahead for Boris Johnson was laid bare just minutes after he was ­announced as the new prime minister.

Newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson arrives at Conservative party HQ in London yesterday. Picture: AP

Boris Johnson wants to unite his deeply divided country but the challenge of the task was laid bare just minutes after he was ­announced as the new prime minister and Conservative Party leader yesterday.

Yet on the international stage there was nothing but huge congratulations. One of the first world leaders to congratulate Johnson was Scott Morrison.

“I look forward to working with him and catching up at the G7 next month,” said the Prime Minister, who added: “He has a reputation for getting things done and making things happen. I wish him all the best as he charts the way forward for the UK.

“We have a great relationship with the UK and it will remain so with Boris.’’

US President Donald Trump was also encouraging, after their relationship has warmed remarkably since Mr Johnson’s criticisms when the US leader was first elected three years ago.

‘’He will be great!’’ tweeted Mr Trump.

The tone of celebrations within Britain was more muted.

Mr Johnson was attacked, predictably, along party lines, not just for his hardline Brexit approach to the upcoming EU talks but for going to an elitist school.

The deep fissures surrounding Brexit and the hostile political reactions that dogged Prime Minister Theresa May continued without pause as soon as Mr Johnson took to the lectern to outline his four broad plans he laughingly described as “Dude’’: deliver Brexit, unite the country, defeat Jeremy Corbyn and energise politics.

Like his school friend and former prime minister David Cameron, Mr Johnson went to one of the most privileged ­education institutions in the world, Eton, and then to Oxford University.

Said Labour MP David Tammy: “Boris Johnson’s coronation as Tory leader and prime minister is a sad indictment of the state of modern Britain. Even after a career marked by incompetence, lies and vanity, if you have been to the right school and university, you can get the top job in the ­country.’’

Labour’s deputy, John McDonnell, said Mr Johnson’s speech calling for a can-do approach was “excruciatingly and embarrassingly underwhelming’’, describing it as akin to “an ill-prepared after-dinner speech at the local golf club’’.

Mr Johnson’s self-admitted entitlement — he was a member of the infamously toffy and sneering Bullingdon club — has grated with the Labour opposition, and with Remainer Tories who are horrified that he may seek to circumvent the pro-Remain parliament to deliver some form of Brexit.

Chuka Umunna, a centrist who left the Labour Party, said: “I cannot think of a Tory leadership candidate more unfit to become the prime minister of this country than Boris Johnson, the worst foreign secretary of modern times who has caused huge offence to large numbers of our fellow citizens. A dark and depressing time for the UK.’’

But Mr Johnson’s rousing enthusiasm in his first speech immediately after learning of his leadership victory over Jeremy Hunt by a margin of two to one impressed even some of the previously wavering Tory MPs who do not share his negotiating tactics with the EU.

First to congratulate him was Mr Hunt, calling himself “the entrepreneur’’, who tweeted: “You be a great PM for our country at this critical moment! Throughout campaign you showed optimism, energy & unbounded confidence in our wonderful country & we need that.’’

Outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May promised Mr Johnson he would have her full support from the backbench.

Former Brexit secretary Dom­inic Raab insisted Mr Johnson had a “really strong mandate’’ to take the party forward after winning the support of two-thirds of the voting Conservative Party grass-roots members. “I’m sure he will … unite the party and get us moving forward to deliver Brexit, talk about those other things like broadband, like education that the voters want to hear us talking about, and beat Jeremy Corbyn in the next election.”