Amber Rudd accuses Johnson of being a ‘backseat driver’ over Brexit negotiations
Home Secretary denies Cabinet split over EU withdrawal and refuses to deny ambitions of top job
AMBER RUDD has accused Boris Johnson of being a “backseat driver” over EU negotiations after his essay on Brexit re-opened Cabinet rifts.
The Home Secretary said that she did not want Mr Johnson “managing the Brexit process” and criticised his decision to go ahead with the article the day after the latest terrorist attack.
Ms Rudd also refused to deny that she has ambitions of becoming prime minister, saying only that she has not “got time” to think about it.
Ms Rudd, a Remain campaigner during the EU referendum campaign, was less than complimentary about the Foreign Secretary in the run-up to last year’s Brexit vote, saying he was: “The life and soul of the party, but he is not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening.”
Asked by the BBC’S Andrew Marr what she meant when she said that, she replied: “What I meant by that is I don’t want him managing the Brexit process.”
She insisted that Theresa May is “driving the car” and, when pressed on Mr Johnson’s intervention, she said: “You could call it backseat driving.”
Her views were echoed by Damian Green, the First Secretary of State, who said: “It is absolutely clear to everyone that the driver of the car in this instance is the Prime Minister.”
The Home Secretary described Mr Johnson as an “irrepressible enthusiast” on Brexit who brought “enthusiasm, energy, and sometimes entertainment” to the Cabinet.
Asked if the intervention was helpful, she replied: “I think it is absolutely fine. I would expect nothing less from Boris.” She said she had not read his article in The Daily Telegraph because: “I had rather a lot to do on Friday. There was a bomb that nearly went off in Parsons Green. Yesterday I chaired Cobra, I went to see the police. No, I didn’t have time to read the piece.”
She agreed that Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, “has a point” in criticising Mr Johnson for submitting the piece as London suffered another terror attack.
Denying the Cabinet was split over Brexit, Ms Rudd said: “The fact is that most people, like myself, who campaigned for Remain, believe that now we need to get on with it.
“We need to do it in a way that protects the economy, that doesn’t have a cliff edge, that makes sure that immigration attracts the brightest and the best…”
Many ministers are reportedly irritated by Mr Johnson’s intervention, which has exposed differences of opinion in the Cabinet about the size of any Brexit bill that should be paid. Theresa May had spent much of the summer restoring discipline in the Cabinet over Brexit and until now appeared to have been largely successful.
The Home Secretary has been widely touted as a potential successor to Mrs May and she failed to rule out a bid for the top job. Asked about her future ambitions, she said that as Home Secretary she was focused on “keeping people safe”, adding: “I haven’t got time for the rest of it.”
However, Conservative colleagues were unconvinced by her reticence. One senior Tory MP told The Daily Telegraph: “Of course she is lining herself up for a leadership bid, without any question or doubt at all. But she knows, as does everyone else in the party, that it is not in anyone’s interests to have a leadership challenge before Brexit is a legal reality.”
One of the biggest obstacles to Ms Rudd if she did decide to stand in a future leadership contest is the size of her majority in her Hastings and Rye constituency, which slumped from 4,796 to just 346 in June’s general election.
There has been speculation that Ms Rudd might change constituencies for a safe seat at the next election but she would only say: “I’m hoping over the next few years to build on it by showing the voters of Hastings and Rye how I can support them locally.
“I am down in Hastings and Rye most weekends working locally but my priority has to be, as Home Secretary, keeping people safe.”
Meanwhile, Mr Green was asked about his own relationship with the Prime Minister by Sarah Smith on BBC One’s Sunday Politics.
Ms Smith reminded him that Margaret Thatcher talked fondly about her deputy leader William Whitelaw and joked that “everyone needs a Willie”.
Asked if he viewed himself as “Theresa May’s Willie”, he replied: “I was a huge admirer of Willie Whitelaw in my youth and absolutely I would be very content to have him as a role model.”