Team Sunak fear Johnson sabotage
Rishi Sunak’s team fears that Boris Johnson will try to interfere in the Conservative leadership election to prevent his former chancellor of the exchequer succeeding him in Downing Street.
A member of Sunak’s campaign said it was ‘‘clear’’ that Johnson had ‘‘no intention of standing by’’ and would attempt to undermine him against Liz Truss. ‘‘Boris will be seeking to cause trouble for Rishi,’’ they said. ‘‘That much was clear from prime minister’s questions. That is something we are going to have to counter.’’
The Conservative Party has chosen Sunak and Truss as the two finalists in an election to replace Johnson.
In his final prime minister’s questions yesterday, Johnson urged his successor to ‘‘cut taxes and deregulate’’, and warned them against ‘‘always’’ listening to the Treasury. The comments
were interpreted as a clear dig at Sunak, who was chancellor for more than two years and has said that tackling inflation is a greater priority than tax cuts.
The Times reported last week that Johnson had been urging defeated leadership candidates to back ‘‘anyone but Rishi’’, after Sunak’s resignation as chancellor helped to precipitate his downfall.
Many of Johnson’s most committed supporters, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, were early supporters of Truss’s campaign.
At the despatch box yesterday, Johnson declared ‘‘mission largely accomplished’’.
He said: ‘‘I want to use the last few seconds to give some words of advice to my successor, whoever he or she may be. Number one: stay close to the Americans. Stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere.’’
In the most suggestive passage, Johnson said: ‘‘Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is. I love the Treasury but remember if we’d always listened to the Treasury we wouldn’t have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel.’’
He added: ‘‘The last few years have been the greatest privilege of my life.
‘‘It’s true that I helped to get the biggest Tory majority for 40 years, and a huge realignment in UK politics. We’ve transformed our democracy and restored our national independence. We’ve helped, I’ve helped, to get this country through a pandemic and helped save another country from barbarism. And frankly that’s enough to be going on with.’’
Johnson concluded: ‘‘I want to thank everybody here, and hasta la vista, baby. Thank you.’’
His MPs gave him a standing ovation, maintaining a tradition begun when Tony Blair left office in 2007. Theresa May conspicuously did not stand at first, later rising but not applauding.
At prime minister’s questions, Johnson compared Sir Keir Starmer to a bollard, a puppet and ‘‘some household detergent’’, with little sign of a valedictory thaw between the two leaders.
Johnson said he was ‘‘not following this thing particularly closely’’ after Starmer presented him with a series of criticisms of the government made by the leadership candidates.
In a defiant description of his legacy, Johnson hit back: ‘‘We got Brexit done, he voted against it 48 times. We got this country fast out of Covid in spite of everything, when he would have kept us in lockdown.