Boris Johnson seeks to govern like Donald Trump, his measures will lead to less austerity – Galloway on cabinet reshuffle

The cabinet reshuffle undertaken by PM Boris Johnson clearly shows he seeks to be a true populist leader just like US President Donald Trump – and signals the end of austerity measures in the UK, ex-MP George Galloway tells RT.

“Boris Johnson has signaled that he intends his government to be a populist one, where he controls not just the important decision-making, but his office controls the infrastructure and everyone else’s departments,” Galloway said on Thursday.

Sacking well-known ministers is hardly surprising, then, as populist leaders prefer technocrats in their governments, while all the attention revolves around their own persona. The rest of Johnson’s team will therefore be “just window dressing and administrators,” as Galloway put it.

“Who are Donald Trump’s ministers? – Nobody knows. Donald Trump is the one and only in the United States. And Boris Johnson is now the one and only in the British government,” he added.

The desire to get his hands on all government decision-making further reinforces the similarities between the prime minister and his American counterpart.

“Boris Johnson doesn’t just look like Donald Trump, he intends to govern like Donald Trump, interfering in all decision making and doing so for populist purposes.”

The resignation of Sajid Javid has clearly shown that this is the case, as Johnson “wanted to impose his own personal advisers onto the chancellor.” Now he has done exactly that, tightening his grip on the finances by creating a joint economic advisory board, split between his own office and the finance ministry. Still, it was only the “approximate cause” of what happened to the Treasury, Galloway believes.

Underneath that it’s quite obvious that Javid represented the continuation of austerity, the resistance to spending money and printing money. And it’s clearly Boris Johnson’s intention to spend big.

Massive rail development projects, as well as the already infamous project of the bridge to Northern Ireland, also indicate the end of austerity.

“He intends to build a bridge between Scotland and the north of Ireland, a 20-mile bridge over the North Channel of the Irish Sea – another gigantic undertaking.”

While some believe Johnson’s policies to be right-wing populism, a step away from the austerity that has been the centerpiece of UK government policies for years actually constitutes a shift towards left-wing populism, Galloway noted.

Some people foolishly interpret centralization of power in Boris Johnson’s hands as being a move to the right, but, in fact, it’s a move to the left

While the reshuffle has claimed several prominent victims, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has escaped the ax. Galloway said that the survival of Wallace, who has constantly clashed with Johnson over defense spending and Huawei’s role in the 5G rollout, is a sign of no change in London’s military posture.

“The defense minister, Ben Wallace, was rightly tipped for the sack, but he was not in fact sacked, so we must assume that British defense and security policy will continue as before.”

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