OWN SIDE ARE CALLING HIM NOW
BORIS Johnson has been called a “clown” and “embarrassing buffoon” by a former top member of his own party.
Alan Duncan ripped into the Prime Minister and many of his cabinet in his autobiography.
Mr Duncan, who was Johnson’s deputy when he was Foreign Secretary, said the PM has a “selfdeluding mock-romantic passion”.
He added: “He is a clown … an embarrassing buffoon … an international stain on our reputation … disloyal ... ill-disciplined, shambolic, shameless clot … an egotistical showman.”
He also stuck the boot into other top
Tories, calling Priti
Patel a “nightmare”, Michael Gove a “weirdo” and Gavin Williamson a “schemer”.
He reveals he and Mr Johnson had a blazing row over a newspaper report about diplomats treating the now PM as an “international joke”.
When Mr Johnson asked, “Why don’t they take me seriously?”, Mr Duncan replied: “Look in the f***ing mirror!”
He adds Mr Johnson flew into a rage after summoning him to his office for a dressing-down. He said: “We had a stand-up confrontation – he had completely popped”. Mr
Duncan told him to admit the article was true – that he was a “joke”. The ex-MP for Rutland and Melton – who quit politics 16 months ago after four years serving as a minister in the Department for International Development – is also scathing about other members of the Tory government in his book In The Thick Of It. He calls Home Secretary Ms Patel “a complete and utter nightmare, the Wicked Witch of Witham” – the Essex constituency she represents.
He claims she was unpopular with officials as International Development Secretary: “They hate Priti, mainly because she seems to hate all of them. She is a complete and utter nightmare.” He also describes Cabinet Office Minister Mr Gove as “an unctuous freak, a wacky weirdo”.
And he says of Education Secretary Mr Williamson after he was appointed Chief Whip: “It feels ill-judged – you want someone loyal there, and you won’t get that from GW, who is an inexperienced schemer, only in it for himself.”