PM ‘delusional’ over his bid to hang on to power
NORTH West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen has dismissed talk of Boris Johnson leading the Conservatives until 2030 as “quite delusional”
Asked if he should quit before the year he has under the rules before his parliamentary colleagues can call another confidence vote in his leadership, Mr Bridgen told the BBC yesterday: “Yes, I do.”
He said he had thought Mr Johnson’s talk of staying until 2030 was “another of the Prime Minister’s jokes”.
At the weekend, the PM said he no plans to resign. Instead, he said he was pushing to stay in power until around the mid-2030s.
Speaking in Kigali, Rwanda, Mr Johnson said: “At the moment I’m thinking actively about a third term and what could happen then, but I will review that when I get to it.”
The Prime Minister survived a confidence vote by 211 to 148 – with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross among those voting for a change of leadership.
His leadership has come under further strain Following the loss of two by-elections last week and the subsequent resignation of party chairman Oliver Dowden.
However, speaking in Germany yesterday, Mr Johnson urged Western allies to stand firm over Ukraine as he sought to put his domestic political difficulties to one side.
He met counterparts at the G7 summit on the latest leg of a series of international summits which have kept him out of the UK as questions mount over his leadership. He will hope that by appearing on an international stage, focusing on the biggest war in Europe since the defeat of the Nazis, will persuade doubters tit is not the right time to consider a change in leadership in the UK.
His Cabinet colleague Brandon Lewis said yesterday the backbench 1922 Committee should not be changing the rules to allow Mr Johnson to face another confidence vote.
When asked about whether the rules should be changed, the Northern Ireland Secretary told Times Radio: “No, we shouldn’t even really be talking about it.
“What we should all be doing is: we have had a vote, had a decision made, we all get on, we come together, we focus on delivering for people across all these policy areas where we are all in agreement we want to deliver for people. Let’s get on and focus on delivering them.”
But Mr Bridgen takes a different view. He told Broadcasting House: “Changing the rules of the 1922 committee, or even threatening it, is something Boris Johnson and his team relentlessly used against Theresa May to force her to resign ultimately. So what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander in my book.”
He added that if a majority of Conservative candidates who want the rules changes were elected to the 1922 committee, that would effectively be a second confidence vote in the Prime Minister and he hoped that would be “enough to let the Prime Minister know that the game is up”. He added: “I wrote in January after the Partgygate fiasco broke that the Prime Minister should go and that he had become an existential threat to the future of the party. I think the by-election results we saw this week completely vindicated that view; no one is bigger than the party. I think the Prime Minister has lost sight of that.
“I think saying he was hinking of a third term when he hasn’t even won a second term is quite delusional.”
While Mr Ross is in favour of leadership change, he has said it would be “wrong” to change the rules.
Speaking on BBC’S Sunday Show, he said: “I’m a member of the 1922 Committee but I’m not on the executive committee and it is for the executive committee to look at rule changes. And clearly there is an election, I think, next week or the week after, and some candidates, their pitch is that they would change the rules. I personally don’t think we should change the rules midway through a process. I think that’s the wrong way to do it.
“But we saw with Theresa May, she lost a vote of the 1922 Committee and it didn’t take a rule change.
“She looked at the situation a few months on and she stepped down herself.” Asked whether his party will lose the next general election if Mr Johnson remains leader, Mr Ross said he “was not looking at that”.
“We’ve got probably two or more years to go until the next general election,” he said.
“And the biggest issue for me is the priorities that the government, both here in Scotland and across the UK, should be focusing on which is the cost-of-living crisis and all of the issues that are facing our NHS, education, and local government.”
PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has insisted the “golden rule” is to “focus on what we are doing”, after revealing he is planning to be in office into the 2030s.
He admitted he has not “had time” to reflect on the biggest regret of his premiership so far, but claimed the Government’s achievements have been “remarkable”.
It comes as pressure has been mounting on the Conservative Party leader from across the political divide following the Tories’ stinging by-election defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton.
Mr Johnson said during a trip to Rwanda this weekend that he is “thinking actively” about fighting the next two General Elections to become the longest-serving postwar leader.
Asked at the G7 summit in Germany on Sunday if his ambitions are delusional, Mr Johnson said: “What I’m saying is this is a Government that is getting on with delivering for the people of this country and we’ve got a huge amount to do.”
He said the “golden rule” is to “focus on what we are doing” – to address the cost of living, the “massive” plan for a stronger economy, and “making sure that the UK continues to offer the kind of leadership around the world that I know our people want”.
Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said during a round of interviews on Sunday he thinks the PM is serious in his aspirations, arguing his desire to look “long-term” when it comes to his leadership “has got to be a good thing”.
The Northern Ireland Secretary told Sky News he sees in Mr Johnson “drive and enthusiasm for what we want to achieve for our country”, and that kind of “zest” is to be celebrated.
He told LBC there is no point in the PM “pretending he’s somebody else”, after Mr Johnson insisted he will not undergo a “psychological transformation” despite pressure piling on his leadership.
In an interview with ITV at the G7 summit, the Prime Minister said the Government will continue to do “remarkable” things.
Put to him that he no longer has voters’ trust, and asked if this is a source of personal shame, he said: “No, because I think that actually when you look at what this Government has done, it is quite exceptional.”
He added: “I understand that people are going to want to criticise me, attack me for all sorts of reasons, some of them good, some of them less good.
“I think that actually when you look at what this Government has done, it is pretty remarkable. We’re going to continue to do that.”
Asked for his biggest regret of his tenure so far, he said: “I’m going to leave that to further reflection, I haven’t had time to think about that.”
The Prime Minister has urged Tory MPS plotting to oust him not to focus on the issues he has “stuffed up”, after his authority was further diminished by a Cabinet resignation.
Oliver Dowden stood down as Tory Party co-chairman in the wake of the by-election defeats, saying he and Conservative supporters are “distressed and disappointed by recent events” and telling Mr Johnson that “someone must take responsibility”.
But the PM set his sights on being in office in the “mid 2030s”, in a run that would see him outlast Margaret Thatcher’s reign.
Asked by journalists at the British high commissioner’s residence in Kigali if he would lead his party into the next election, he said: “Will I win? Yes.”
In buoyant mood, the Prime Minister added: “At the moment I’m actively thinking about the third term and what could happen then, but I will review that when I get to it.”
Labour, meanwhile, challenged the Tories to call an early election, with leader Sir Keir Starmer telling Mr Johnson: “Bring it on.”