FEELING THE HEAT
Boris slammed for sick attack over Chequers plan ‘Dirty dossier’ on his sex life to scupper leadership bid
Boris Johnson under pressure yesterday
OUTRAGED Tories lined up to blast Boris Johnson yesterday after he compared the Prime Minister with a suicide bomber over her handling of Brexit.
The leading Leave campaigner was accused of targeting Theresa May to deflect attention from claims that he cheated on his wife.
And Mr Johnson’s suggestion that the PM had “wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution” and “handed the detonator” to Brussels came as he was linked with former Tory aide Carrie Symonds, 30.
His comments sparked an angry backlash and deepened the party’s row over its leadership and Brexit.
Tory MP and former Army officer Tom Tugendhat said: “A suicide bomber murdered many in the courtyard of my office in Helmand.
“The carnage was disgusting, limbs and flesh hanging from trees and bushes. Brave men who stopped him killing me and others died in horrific pain.
“Comparing the PM to that isn’t funny.”
DISGUSTING
And Sir Alan Duncan, Mr Johnson’s former deputy when he was Foreign Secretary, said: “For Boris to say that the PM’s view is like that of a suicide bomber is too much.
“This marks one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics. This is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isn’t now, I will make sure it is later.”
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt was “stunned” by Mr Johnson’s language, adding: “There is no justification for such an outrageous, inappropriate and hurtful analogy.”
Tory MP Sarah Wollaston accused Brexiteers of undermining the PM and said she would consider leaving the party if Mr Johnson took charge.
But asked if Mr Johnson had put a bomb under Mrs May’s leadership, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “[She] did that herself when she put forward the Chequers proposals without consulting widely.”
And Brexit-backer Zac Goldsmith responded to Sir Alan by saying: “There are a number of possible motives behind this tweet but given its author, we can be certain ‘principles’ aren’t one.”
Tory MP Nadine Dorries said Mr Johnson’s opponents were “terrified of his popular appeal” and if he became PM he would deliver a “clean and prosperous” Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s intervention came days after it was he and wife of 25 years Marina Wheeler are divorcing amid allegations of him cheating. It emerged yesterday he had been close to Ms Symonds, the former Tory party director of communications, before and after his marriage hit the rocks. Neither he nor Ms Symonds – pictured smiling at each other at the Tory Black and White Ball in London earlier this year – have commented on their friendship. Mr Johnson is believed to have split from Marina in July. His attack on Mrs May came as it emerged her aides drew up a dirty dossier on his sex life during the 2016 leadership contest. The 4,000-word “war book”was not used after his campaign fizzled out but it is circulating in Westminster amid claims “black ops” attacks were being planned against him. The dossier makes claims about Mr Johnson’s lies over his affair with socialite Petronella Wyatt.
And it claims he had an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley, “on one occasion visiting both her and Petronella Wyatt on the same night”.
GUTTER
Officials at Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquarters deny circulating the document. But Brexiteer Tory Ross Thomson questioned what Number 10 was playing at and said he was disappointed by the “gutter politics”.
Westminster insiders believe Mr Johnson may launch an open bid to topple Mrs May as early as today. Others said he would kick off his campaign at the party conference.
In an article yesterday, he said Mrs May’s Chequers deal was “feeble” and “pathetic”. He added: “It is a humiliation. We look like a sevenconfirmed stone weakling being comically bent out of shape by a 500lb gorilla.”
Mr Johnson also lashed out at the Northern Ireland “backstop”, saying: “We have opened ourselves to perpetual political blackmail.
“We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution – and handed the detonator to Michel Barnier. We have given him a jemmy with which Brussels can choose – at any time – to crack apart the union between Great Britain and Northern
This is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isn’t now, I will make sure it is later SIR ALAN DUNCAN ON BORIS’S SICK ‘SUICIDE BOMBER’ ATTACK ON THE PM
Ireland.” Meanwhile, his successor as Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, pleaded for Tories to get behind Mrs May and the Chequers plan, saying her efforts to achieve the best outcome for Britain “will be greatly strengthened if we are united”.
In an apparent swipe at Brexiteers, he added: “Nobody else has a detailed plan that delivers on the instruction of the people and has a chance of succeeding in the negotiations.”
But Steve Baker, who quit as a Brexit minister over Chequers, warned Mrs May she risks a “catastrophic split” in the party.
He said he hoped Tories would come out of their forthcoming conference in Birmingham united behind a Free Trade Agreement solution to relations with the EU.