The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
It’s Prime Minister Boris
• Johnson sees off Hunt challenge and will take charge at Number 10 today • Nicola Sturgeon voices ‘profound concerns’ and calls for no-deal Brexit to be ruled out
Boris Johnson is putting together his Cabinet and preparing for government after a landslide victory in the Tory leadership contest.
The new Conservative Party leader, pictured, used his victory speech to promise he will “energise the country” and meet the October 31 Brexit deadline with a “new spirit of can-do”.
Mr Johnson secured more than two-thirds of the votes in the contest, comfortably defeating Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
In an apparent acknowledgement of his divisive style, Mr Johnson said: “I know that there will be people around the place who will question the wisdom of your decision.
“And there may even be some people here who still wonder quite what they have done.
“I would just point out to you of course nobody, no one party, no one person has a monopoly of wisdom. But if you look at the history of the last 200 years of this party’s existence you will see that it is we Conservatives who have had the best insights, I think, into human nature.”
Mr Johnson secured 92,153 votes – 66.4% – to defeat Mr Hunt, who was backed by 46,656 Tory members – 33.6%.
Despite the resounding victory, Mr Johnson’s share of the vote was slightly lower than that achieved by David Cameron in the 2005 Conservative leadership election, when he took 67.6%.
He will take over from Theresa May as prime minister today and has begun appointing allies to his top team.
Mark Spencer will become his chief whip – a key position – as Mr Johnson attempts to govern with a working ToryDUP majority of just two.
Sky News reported that Sky’s chief financial officer Andrew Griffith – who owns the £9.5 million Westminster townhouse used by Mr Johnson as a campaign base – will be a corporate adviser to the new PM while former international development secretary Priti Patel is set to return to Cabinet as he looks to raise the numbers of women and ethnic minority ministers in his top team.
He has already begun work shaping what allies have described as a “cabinet for modern Britain”.
Ms Patel, is expected to be joined at the top table by the Indian-born Employment Minister Alok Sharma.
Allies said that Mr Johnson was looking to welcome a record number of ethnic minority ministers around the Cabinet table while increasing the number of women attending Cabinet in their own right.
The first ministerial appointments are expected to be confirmed after Mr Johnson returns from Buckingham Palace following his audience with the Queen.
Mr Hunt said the new Tory leader would be “a great PM for our country at this critical moment”.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose 10 MPs prop up the Tories at Westminster, said she had spoken to Mr Johnson and confirmed the deal remains in place – although its terms would be reviewed, a possible sign that the party could demand more cash for Northern Ireland.
Mrs May, who will resign today after a final session of Prime Minister’s Questions, offered her congratulations but stressed that Mr Johnson should work “to deliver a Brexit that works for the whole UK”, a clear warning against a no-deal departure.
She promised Mr Johnson “my full support from the back benches”.
US President Donald Trump said Mr Johnson would be a “great” prime minister.
Brussels promised to work with Mr Johnson on Brexit but gave no ground on his desire to rewrite the deal on offer.
Mr Johnson will be appointed as prime minister by the Queen.
Iran has warned it will protect its waters after the UK set out plans to put together a European maritime force to defend shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the British of “piracy” and insisted that Iran was responsible for “security and freedom of navigation” in the Gulf.
The issue will be one of the first diplomatic challenges confronting incoming prime minister Boris Johnson.
In a message congratulating the new Tory leader, Mr Zarif said: “Iran does not seek confrontation.
“But we have 1,500 miles of Persian Gulf coastline. These are our waters and we will protect them.”
He repeated Tehran’s claim that the British had committed “piracy” over the seizure of the Grace 1 supertanker by the authorities in Gibraltar on suspicion that it was transporting oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions.
And he accused the UK of carrying out the policies of the US hawks led by John Bolton which Tehran has dubbed the B-team.
He said: “We are responsible for security and freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.
“That is our lifeline and it is much, much better for the United Kingdom not to be engaged in implementing the ploys of the B-team.
“The B-team is losing ground in the United States and now they are turning their attention to the United Kingdom.
“I guess the same policies that failed in the US will fail in the United Kingdom.”
The UK has also accused Iran of an “act of state piracy” over the seizure of the British-flagged Stena Impero by Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Friday.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told MPs on Monday that the proposed new European mission would focus on ensuring free navigation through one of the world’s most important waterways, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and a quarter of its liquefied natural gas flow.
It would seek to “complement” US proposals to protect shipping in the region, although it would not form part of the American “maximum pressure” policy on Tehran as the UK continued to support the Iran nuclear deal which the US has repudiated.
“It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing this increased international presence in the Gulf, because the focus of our diplomacy has been on de-escalating tensions in the hope that such changes would not be necessary,” Mr Hunt said.
He added: “If Iran continues on this dangerous path, they must accept the price will be a larger Western military presence in the waters along their coastline, not because we wish to increase tensions but simply because freedom of navigation is a principle which Britain and its allies will always defend.”