Boris blasts back at Theresa
BORIS Johnson hit back last night at Theresa May’s claim he has abandoned Britain’s position of ‘global moral leadership’.
The Prime Minister insisted his predecessor was wrong as he expressed pride at the ‘leading’ role he is playing on the world stage.
Writing in yesterday’s Daily Mail, Mrs May suggested Mr Johnson has failed to honour British values by threatening to break international law in Brexit trade talks and tearing up the foreign aid target.
at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson was interrogated by MPs over the bombshell article that had become the talk of Westminster.
But the PM firmly rejected the criticism, telling the Commons that ‘when it comes to global leadership on the world stage, this country is embarking on a quite phenomenal year’. he said: ‘We have the G7 and Cop26, and we have already led the world with the Gavi summit for global vaccination, raising $8.8billion (£6.5billion).’
Britain is ‘working to promote global free trade, and of course we will work with President Biden to secure the transatlantic alliance and Nato’, he added. at a briefing afterwards, the PM’s spokesman said he rejected Mrs May’s characterisation of his leadership. ‘The UK is and will continue to be an outward-looking nation, and will continue to be a leading voice on the international stage,’ the spokesman said.
asked if Mr Johnson’s government is still providing moral leadership, the spokesman replied: ‘Yes... we continue to spend substantial amounts of money on aid to support international development, and we will continue to do so this year despite the temporary cuts to the aid budget.
‘We continue to provide more aid spending than almost any country in the world.’
The spokesman dodged questions about whether Mr Johnson welcomed the advice from his predecessor and declined to say when the pair last spoke. Mrs May’s office also refused to answer.
In her Mail article, to mark Joe Biden’s inauguration yesterday as us President, Mrs May said it represented a ‘golden opportunity’ for Britain, with the return of a more normal style of presidency.
‘strong leadership knows when to compromise to achieve a greater good,’ she said. ‘We must reject a scene in which a few strongmen face off against each other and instead bring people together in a common cause.’