Hunt ‘is a pound- shop Machiavelli’
PM’s would-be replacement (who lost the last leadership race) mauled over coup bid
JEREMY Hunt was branded a ‘pound-shop Machiavelli’ last night after he wielded the knife against Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister’s allies accused his former leadership rival of ‘duplicity’ and seeking to destabilise the country to serve his own ambitions for the top job.
Nadine Dorries publicly savaged Mr Hunt, who was the longest serving health secretary in history, for his record in office and his political manoeuvring.
‘Your pandemic preparation during six years as health secretary was found wanting and inadequate,’ the Culture Secretary wrote in a blistering thread of messages on Twitter. ‘Your duplicity right now in destabilising the party and country to serve your own personal ambition, more so.’
Mr Hunt had broken cover to call for Mr Johnson to be removed yesterday – just three weeks after he had warned now was
‘You only get one shot – and he missed’
not the right time for a leadership contest. In an interview on May 15, the former foreign secretary had argued: ‘The only person who would rejoice if we had a hiatus of several months in the leadership in Britain would be Vladimir Putin.’
Yet yesterday morning saw him warning that the Tories would be defeated at the next election unless the party removed Mr Johnson. ‘[The] decision is change or lose,’ he tweeted. ‘I will be voting for change.’
Mr Hunt stood against the Prime Minister in the 2019 contest, but was trounced by Mr Johnson who received almost double the number of votes from party members.
Mrs Dorries, a former health minister, said in her attack that Mr Hunt had told her he expected the Government to collapse on the back of Brexit ‘and you [Mr Hunt] would swoop in’. She added: ‘If you had been leader you’d have handed the keys of No 10 to [Jeremy] Corbyn.
‘You’ve been wrong about almost everything, you are wrong again now.’
She said that Mr Hunt, whose wife is Chinese, had recommended following Beijing’s example in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, with cases ‘removed from their homes and placed into isolation hotels for two weeks’.
Later, in an interview with Sky News, Mrs Dorries accused Mr Hunt of failing to disguise his motivations. She added: ‘You can’t say repeatedly that you’re not going to challenge the Prime Minister when there’s a war in Ukraine, and on the day Russia fires rockets into Kyiv decide that it is time for change of leader – I’m afraid that’s just not acceptable.’
Allies of Mr Johnson last night echoed her sentiments. One Cabinet source warned of Mr Hunt, who campaigned for Remain ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum: ‘We would still be in the EU if Jeremy had been PM.’
In the 2019 leadership contest, Mr Johnson won 66 per cent support from Conservative members, ahead of Mr Hunt on 34 per cent.
Tories last night dismissed his chances of winning a second time round. Mark Jenkinson, MP for Workington, said: ‘The membership have spoken on Jeremy Hunt. And they’ll do it again.’
A Cabinet source added: ‘You only get one shot – and he missed.’ Michael Fabricant, the MP for Lichfield, said it was an ‘understatement’ to describe Mr Hunt’s intervention yesterday as ‘the least subtle leadership bid of modern times’.
Chris Clarkson, Tory MP for Heywood and Middleton, added: ‘The whole thing has had an air of “pound-shop Machiavelli” about it from the get-go.’
In his series of posts on Twitter, Mr Hunt had written: ‘The Conservative Party must now decide if it wishes to change its leader.
‘Because of the situation in Ukraine this was not a debate I wanted to have now, but under our rules we must do that. ‘Having been trusted with power,
Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve. We are not offering the integrity, competence and vision necessary to unleash the enormous potential of our country.
‘And because we are no longer trusted by the electorate …we are set to lose the next general election.’ Mr Hunt added: ‘Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change.’
He had argued against a change in leader on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme on May 15. ‘I don’t think now is the right moment,’ he said.
‘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 the only person who would rejoice if we had a hiatus of several months in the leadership in Britain would be Vladimir Putin.’
‘We are no longer trusted by voters’