We tend to think that leadership is all about the leader, and the qualities that separate them from their followers. But more recently there is a recognition that leadership is better understood when thinking about what connects leaders with their followers. This connection, and its deterioration, is what best explains the end of Boris Johnson’s political career, argue Stephen Reicher and Alex Haslam.

What on earth just happened? Why, did the electorate and then Tory MPs and finally his own Cabinet turn on the Prime Minister and force him out? It’s not as if the rule-breaking and lies and lack of integrity were anything new. They have been known for years. The public and the politicians voted for him despite (and, as I shall argue below) possibly because of them. The expressions of horror at the Prime Minister’s misdemeanours in MPs and Ministers resignation letters were about as convincing as Captain Renault’s outrage at discovering illegal gambling in the back room at Rick’s in Casablanca.

So, if the lying was no different from before, what was the difference which led his erstwhile supporters to turn on the Prime Minister? And why was it so hard to get rid of him? What led Boris Johnson to cling on well past the point when everyone else considered him to be a dead man walking? Moreover, what did last week’s drama teach us about the psychology of leadership?

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Most of the time we accept and even reward leaders who act immorally, unfairly, dishonestly, even illegally, as long as they do so to the advantage of our group.

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