Burka row Johnson can be a ‘great prime minister’
BORIS JOHNSON has been hailed as potentially a “great Prime Minister” by President Trump’s former chief strategist, as Cabinet splits emerged over the deepening burka row.
Steve Bannon, who is schooling far-right movements across Europe and has been in touch with Mr Johnson in recent weeks, said the former foreign secretary should not “bow at the altar of political correctness” by apologising.
However, a Tory peer and former adviser to David Cameron savaged Mr Johnson, accusing him of “casual racism”, “courting fascism” and of a life-long “moral emptiness”.
The comments followed fellow Brexiter MP Jacob Rees-mogg claiming Mr Johnson was being lined up for a “show trial” by Prime Minister Theresa May because of her “personal rivalry” with him.
The row, sparked last Monday by Mr Johnson likening Muslim women wearing the burka and niqab to “letter boxes” and bank robbers”, shows signs of splitting the Conservative Party and hastening a leadership challenge against
Mrs May.
Four Cabinet ministers criticised the party’s decision to investigate whether Mr Johnson broke the party’s code of conduct, with an eye to disciplining him.
Tory chairman Brandon Lewis and Mrs May have urged Mr Johnson to apologise for his comments in a Daily Telegraph column, but the Uxbridge & South Ruislip MP has refused.
The Sunday Times quoted one Cabinet minister as saying Tory HQ’S response had been “cack-handed” because most party members agreed with Mr Johnson, another minister called it “a total c**k-up from start to finish” that had damaged the party.
A Comres poll for the Sunday Express found 53 per cent of people
oppose Mr Johnson being punished, compared to 40% who wanted him disciplined.
However there was a sharp age divide – most people below 35 wanted him punished, while three quarters of pensioners, the bedrock of Tory members, support Mr Johnson.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Bannon, who masterminded Mr Trump’s presidential bid and served in the White House until last year, said there was “obviously a need for a more populist party in the UK”, but denied Mr Johnson was pitching for populist vote.
He said Mr Johnson had not been arguing for a ban on the burka, only saying it was oppressive, but “the substance got lost because of the throwaway line”. He went on: “I consider Boris Johnson someone who understands the physics in the ebb and flow of events. Those individuals are rare.
“I’m not sure Boris is using the Trump playbook so much as giving the people what they want – authenticity. Boris just needs to be Boris – true to his nature and his calling – and I think he has potential to be a great prime minister, not a good one.”
Mr Bannon also praised former football hooligan, mortgage fraudster and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson as a “force of nature” and a “movement in and of himself”.
He said his team was in daily contact with Robinson, who was freed from a 13-month prison term after judges quashed a contempt finding earlier this month, but now faces a fresh hearing on the same case that could see him returned behind bars.
Comparing him to the US rapper Kayne West, who has spoken in support of Mr Trump, Mr Bannon said: “Tommy is not just a guy but a movement in and of himself now.
“He represents the working class and channels a lot of the frustration of everyday, blue-collar Britons... He is a force of nature – like Kanye – not built to be managed.”
Mr Bannon has spoken of his plans for an Eu-wide movement to rally populist and nationalist voters for the European Parliament elections in 2019, and said he would be spending 70% of his time in Europe following the US mid-term elections in November.
But Lord Cooper, a former aide to David Cameron, said: “The rottenness of Boris Johnson goes even deeper than his casual racism and his equally casual courting of fascism. He will advocate literally anything to play to the crowd of the moment. His career is a saga of moral emptiness and lies; pathetic, weak and needy; the opposite of strong.”
Damian Green, former deputy PM to
Mrs May, said he feared Mr Johnson
“being turned into a martyr” by the far right, leading to “disaster” for him and the Tories.
Writing in the Mail On Sunday, he said: “I hope no Conservative politician, including Boris, is taking advice from
[Steve Bannon] about how the Conservative Party should behave.”
The Muslim Council of Britain said Mr Johnson’s remarks had “shone a light on the underbelly of Islamophobia” in the Conservatives.
Mr Johnson said nothing as he returned on Saturday from a trip to Italy, but was due to write another column for today’s Daily Telegraph.
In the Sunday Telegraph, his father Stanley Johnson said his son had been
“spot on” with his burka comments, and said he would have “gone a bit further” and backed a partial ban.
He said: “Yes, Boris used some colourful language. That’s called ‘freedom of speech’ or it was in my day. Why the all furore? Why has this disastrous ‘blue-on-blue’ warfare broken out? If that isn’t an own-goal, I don’t know what is. Mr Corbyn must be rubbing his hands with glee.”