Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of far-right publication Breitbart News, and campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s successful 2016 election has been meeting with Boris Johnson.
It is unclear as to specifically what the men were talking about, but a Buzzfeed source suggests ‘they certainly weren’t discussing the cricket scores’.
Bannon additionally served as Donald Trump’s chief strategist during the first months of the administration and upon leaving the administration has thrown his weight behind far-right candidates across the world.
Bannon supported alleged child predator Roy Moore in the 2017 US Senate election in Alabama and has similarly thrown his weight behind Marine LePen’s National Front Party, Hungary’s Fidesz, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Belgian People’s Party – all right wing in their beliefs.
Another common theme amongst many of the European parties Bannon has supported is Euroscepticism, which leads many commentators to believe that Brexiteer Boris Johnson is plotting a route to number 10 with Bannon.
The news of Johnson and Bannon’s meetings come after significant speculation that Johnson resigned from the Foreign Office in order to challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Theresa May, with this latest revelation only adding fuel to the fire.
This is worrying news for many Briton’s as Bannon is attributed with introducing white nationalism and the alt-right into mainstream US politics, as well as being a driving force behind Donald Trump’s attacks on the media.
Conservative commentator David French claims that Bannon has ‘done more than any other person’ to introduce the alt-right to the American mainstream.
During his time as Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Bannon orchestrated the Muslim Ban whilst his white nationalism has been attributed as a factor behind Trump’s infamous ‘very fine people on both sides’ statement following the murder of Heather Heyer, an activist who was protesting against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Aligning with anti-immigration, economic nationalist Steve Bannon is a significant move away from the liberal and outward-looking London Mayor that Johnson portrayed himself as prior to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
When contacted about whether Johnson had been seeking guidance from Bannon, both men declined to comment, however, Bannon has spoken glowingly about the former foreign secretary in recent weeks and has publicly encouraged Johnson to challenge the Prime Minister for her job.
By meeting with Bannon, it is clear that Boris Johnson is not only showing his dreams of being Prime Minister are not dead but that he is willing to align himself with the far right in order to win the keys to number 10.
