Boris Johnson ‘blew up over bitter tax rows with Sunak’

BORIS JOHNSON “blew up” over tax rises amid bitter rows over the economy with Rishi Sunak, his former No 10 director of communications has claimed.

Guto Harri said the differences between Mr Johnson and his thenchancellor played a bigger part in the collapse of his government than the partygate scandal.

Mr Harri, who worked in Downing Street from February to September 2022, revealed the former premier’s anger over Mr Sunak’s fiscal decisions during the first episode of the new LBC podcast Unprecedented.

Insisting that the two men had a “warm, cordial” personal relationship, he said Mr Johnson “wanted something more dynamic” that would deliver economic growth and tax cuts.

“Another thing that’s still at the heart of debate in the UK is whether we should have put up corporation tax,” Mr Harri said. “Rishi was digging in, Boris wanted a change and Rishi was reserving the right to decide these things on his own. There was a moment where Boris blew up. Sadly, Rishi was not in the room. He needed to know but Boris just basically went: ‘F--- this s--- man, f--- this s---. We need to clear out the Treasury. The Treasury is acting like a bank manager, not an engine of growth ... We’re not here to just manage the decline. We need the growth engine of the British economy to be humming.’

“And so this tension was building and that was far more significant in the end, behind the scenes, than any row over Partygate or the trivial nonsense of everyday politics.”

He added that their differing views of the economy were “building towards a moment of truth” in the wake of Mr Sunak’s decision to raise a variety of taxes. “Boris didn’t really want to do the windfall tax, but Rishi Sunak did.”

He also recalled the immediate aftermath of Mr Sunak’s resignation, which prompted dozens of other ministers to quit and proved to be the final straw for Mr Johnson’s flailing administration.

“Boris found a little video on the internet that expressed what he basically wanted to say to Rishi.

“He didn’t send it, but he sent it to me and said ‘thinking of sending this to Rishi’.”

In the 12-second clip, a man playing a variety of instruments sings “you’re a c---” over the instrumental from the 1980s song You Make My Dreams.

Mr Johnson was facing growing calls for his resignation when Mr Harri joined his top team at Downing Street in February 2022.