As Washington barrels head-long into another government shutdown, the crisis over democracy is also being felt in a place that used to be synonymous with stable and sensible politics: the United Kingdom.
The country has had five prime ministers since it voted to leave the European Union in 2016. Rory Stewart came close to being one of them. But he decided to quit party politics in 2019.
He now enjoys a degree of popularity in the U.K. His high profile has raised talk that 10 Downing Street could still be a future address for this nomadic rising star.
Stewart has walked across Asia, taught at Harvard, served as a diplomat in Iraq, and served as a Conservative MP.
His background and trajectory put him on a path to reach high office. But then came Brexit, Boris Johnson, and a level of carelessness that he writes about in his new memoir, called “How Not to Be A Politician.”
Stewart is a Global Ambassador for the charity Give Directly and a co-host of the podcast “The Rest is Politics.”
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