Bungling Boris begged May: Don’t sack me
PANICKING Boris Johnson begged Theresa May for reassurance that he would not be sacked as Foreign Secretary – because he feared he would be ‘toast’ if she won a thumping General Election majority.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that Mr Johnson was worried he faced a humiliating demotion after being told that, if Mrs May wins a new Tory mandate on June 8, she plans to use it to radically reshape her Cabinet.
Well-placed sources say Mr Johnson was so alarmed he asked No10 to make it clear he would keep his job. His allies claim he was told: ‘Relax, you aren’t going to be moved.’
However, other Government sources say maverick Mr Johnson cannot be ‘100 per cent sure’ of keeping his prestigious post. ‘If she wins by a landslide she can do anything she pleases with the Cabinet,’ said one.
Mr Johnson is understood to have asked Downing Street for reassurance shortly after Mrs May called the snap Election. A friend said: ‘Boris thought he was toast. He told us that he feared the worst, and expected to be moved from the FCO.’
He has been rattled by a series of recent run-ins with No10 over the war in Syria. The disclosure came as Mr Johnson waded into the Election campaign yesterday with a new personal attack on Labour, branding Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell the party’s ‘Marx brothers’.
He said Mr Corbyn would turn Britain into a Latin Americanstyle banana republic like Venezuela, where inflation hit nearly 500 per cent a year under its late Marxist leader Hugo Chavez. Mr Johnson said: ‘It’s frightening the Marx brothers, Corbyn and McDonnell, see Venezuela as an example for a future Labour government’.
Two weeks ago, Mr Johnson called Mr Corbyn a ‘mutton-headed mugwump’.
Mr Johnson is not the only senior Cabinet figure nervous about his future. Other sources claimed that assurances had also been given to Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Brexit Secretary David Davis. However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid are thought to be vulnerable. A spokesman for Boris Johnson last night denied the Foreign Secretary had ever said he was ‘toast’. Downing Street declined to comment.