Thread by @jillongovt

In two weeks time Boris Johnson will be replaced as Prime Minister.. but he has been a critical political figure of the past decade so over the next fortnight I am going to dip into @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive to paint a picture of him

Lets start with early Johnson. Former Eurocrat Jonathan Faull told us why there might have been a presumption that Johnson would understand Europe and the EU

But of course, his journalism in Brussels was about identifying comedy examples of EU red tape - it was on such a hunt that @OwenPaterson first encountered him and gives insight into his journalistic technique

and what about early euroscepticism. Former MP @DouglasCarswell remembers getting Johnson as Mayor on board for the "People's Pledge" in 2011. A straw in the wind?

Check out these and more for all your Johnson exit needs ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness… Tomorrow I'll add more on the battle for Boris in the run-up to the Referendum campaign itself.

so I am backing delving into the #Boriswitnessarchive. Suffice to say that with his Telegraph articles, the People's Pledge, and his single market support as Mayor noone knew which was Johnson would jump. They also knew it mattered.

Oliver Letwin was despatched by David Cameron to get Boris onto the Remain bus

But as Letwin said - he failed. we asked him why.

That decision surprised another Leave backer, David Davis

John Bercow told us about the impact that had on David Cameron - and on the campaign

A rather more positive view of the importance of Johnson and Gove to the Leave campaign came from Vote Leave Comms Director Paul Stephenson

and tomorrow I am going to focus on the campaign itself.... come back for me.. If you can't wait, loads more nuggets here ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness…

Back for day 3 - and its the campaign .. we ended with Paul Stephenson from Vote Leave - so lets start with him again about Boris as "political rock star"

One of the big issues in the campaign was the reluctance of Remain - with an eye to party unity post-election - to engage in blue-on-blue attacks (seems odd watching the leadership contest now...) @DavidGauke thought they should have gone harder

Not surprisingly @campbellclaret agrees with that

But it fell to @AmberRuddUK to take Johnson on in the debate

and that discipline was confirmed by his Brexit debate mate @GiselaStuart

Remain Campaign director Will Straw told us how hard it was to campaign against Johnson

So how much credit does Johnson deserve for the Leave win... well opinions may differ but lets go back to one of the original Eurosceptics who thinks that credit should be shared more widely

That is it for today's #Boriswitnessarchive -- check out all these interviews in full here ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness… - next we will look at the aftermath of the Leave vote...

so here we are - I think - on instalment 4 of #boriswitnessarchive s- looking at the aftermath of the Leave vote... David Cameron had resigned and the nation was treated to that memorable Gang of Three press conference.

.@hilarybennmp thought that the leaders of Vote Leave were surprised by the result

and they seemed unprepared for what would happen next as David Davis points out

Douglas Carswell thought they failed to rise to the moment and deliver what was needed

The Cameron resignation meant there was a leadership contest .. the first for 11 years (different days back then...). Dominic Grieve pointed out lots of Leavers wanted Cameron to stay because they did not know what would happen next

But he noted a lot of anti-Boris sentiment - a stop Boris move

But not a view universally shared.. @AmberRuddUK thought that given the result, the post-referendum PM had to be a Leaver.

But she also pointed to the longer-term impact of the Gove-Johnson psychodrama

But did it make a difference to the type of Brexit. @mrchriswilkins who was strategy adviser to Theresa May thought it did

as ever, check out those views in full in @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive and next week we will look at Johnson in, out and in again in government ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness…

back again .. so the surprise in the May Cabinet (I remember jaws dropping) was that she appointed Boris Johnson became Foreign Secretary - Foreign Office permanent secretary @SimonMcDonaldUK told us about finding out who @FCDOGovUK were about to get

the missing word is "meeting".... But Johnson discovered that May was not going to let him have a significant role in the Brexit discussions. more from McDonald

The appointment raised eyebrows in Brussels as well as former UK perm rep Ivan Rogers told us

the dysfunctionality showed up in Johnson's suspicions of minutes of meetings in the Cabinet Committee - McDonald again

Johnson's Cabinet colleague @AmberRuddUK agreed that the Cabinet Committee was very weird - and Johnson was not the only one frustrated by it

Instead there was a separate process by passing the Cabinet committee which Ivan Rogers told us about

so its not much surprise that the whole thing was heading for a car crash - tomorrow we will get to Chequers and beyond.. meanwhile check out all these interviews and more in the @UKandEU #brexitwitnessarchive ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness…

So - Chequers.. the big showdown... David Davis thought Johnson's intervention was not very impressive

his adviser @RaoulRuparel thought Davis was isolated

That may be why May's Chief of Staff @GavinBarwell thought the day had gone rather well

But Davis knew he had to go.. and he also knew that the big news would be whether Johnson followed him or not - so he had to decide how to handle that

so we embarked on the autumn of Chuck Chequers, the winter of failed Meaningful Votes and then May's departure and Johnson's ascent to the premiership. More on that soon. Meanwhile, check out @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness…

@UKandEU Managed to break the thread - so now attached

https://twitter.com/jillongovt/status/1565610473227227137