Western Mail

Hunt declines to say that PM is ‘an honest man’

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JEREMY Hunt has declined to say whether Boris Johnson is an honest man and said he “hopes” the Prime Minister will lead the Conservati­ve Party into the next general election.

The ex-cabinet minister again refused to rule himself out of a future Tory leadership contest, but said now was not the right moment.

When asked yesterday whether Mr Johnson is “an honest man” in the wake of the partygate scandal, Mr Hunt hesitated and then said that “talking about personalit­ies is not a helpful thing to do” when faced with a “serious” internatio­nal situation.

Quizzed by BBC’s Sophie Raworth on whether the Prime Minister was the best person to lead the Tory party into the next election, Mr Hunt answered: “I very much hope so.

“I hope he can turn things round, because, as I say, I don’t think this is the moment for a leadership contest.”

Mr Hunt was the strongest opponent against Mr Johnson for the top job in the party in 2019 and has been touted as a possible candidate should there be another contest. On that prospect, he said: “I don’t rule out a return to frontline politics myself, but I don’t think now is the right moment.

“Britain has been the most robust member of the Western alliance in the face of the first major war in Europe in our lifetimes and I think the only person who would rejoice if we had a hiatus of several months in the leadership in Britain would be (Russian president) Vladimir Putin.”

Mr Hunt acknowledg­ed that his party has “a big mountain to climb in terms of winning back the support of many of our core voters”.

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