Boris Johnson to Take Leadership of a Britain in Deep Crisis – The New York Times

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, congratulated Mr. Johnson on twitter but added: “It would be hypocritical not to be frank about the profound concerns I have at the prospect of his premiership.”

For an orderly exit that minimizes economic disruption, Mr. Johnson must convince both the British Parliament and the European Union to agree on an exit deal, a task his predecessor, Ms. May, found impossible.

[Here’s what to know about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit under Boris Johnson.]

Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, noted that Mr. Johnson’s personal style was “the polar opposite” of his predecessor. Ms. May “knows what she wants most of the time, but she doesn’t tell anybody,” he said.

“He doesn’t seem to have any fundamental commitments or attachments to anything, and seldom knows the details of policy, let alone what he wants to do,” Ford said.

If the two sides cannot agree, Mr. Johnson might seek to exit the union without any deal at all, a step that could mean suspending the Parliament, enduring a constitutional crisis and plunging the economy into chaos.

Mr. Johnson has declined to rule it out, perhaps hoping to use the threat as leverage in talks with E.U. leaders. But the costs of a “no deal” Brexit would be four times as large for the British as for the rest of the European Union collectively, one recent report found. The European Union receives about 13 percent of Britain’s economic output, while exports from the E.U. to the U.K. account for 2.5 percent of the bloc’s output.