PM BORIS COULD BE TOPPLED IN ONE DAY
BORIS JOHNSON yesterday tried to brazen out the extraordinary row over his bust-up with girlfriend Carrie Symonds – insisting he was the only leadership candidate who could unify the nation.
Addressing the first official hustings of the leadership campaign, Mr Johnson was cheered as some members told compere Iain Dale to ‘move on, move on’ when he tried to get him to talk about the row.
Mr Johnson defiantly said: ‘I don’t think people want to hear about that kind of thing.’
But in a packed meeting at Birmingham, the leadership favourite also faced shouts of ‘answer the question’ as he refused four times to talk about why police were called to Miss Symonds’s flat early on Friday morning.
He declared: ‘People are entitled to ask about me and my determination and character, and what I want to do for this country.’
In a bravura address to the 1,500strong audience, Mr Johnson said he was the man to break the Brexit deadlock and defeat the twin threats of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
‘We will pitchfork this incubus off our backs,’ he added.
Mr Johnson put leaving the EU on October 31 – deal or no deal – at the heart of his pitch, hinting he would delay paying Britain’s £39 billion divorce bill right up until the Brexit deadline if that would get Brussels to agree an acceptable deal.
But appearing after Mr Johnson, rival candidate Jeremy Hunt immediately put trust at the heart of the choice in front of party members, signalling that he was the candidate who could get a deal from the EU.
Mr Hunt, who succeeded Mr Johnson as Foreign Secretary, said: ‘Who is the Prime Minister we trust to send to Brussels and lead us out of this crisis?
‘Send the right person and there’s a deal to be done.’
In a barely disguised dig at Mr Johnson, Mr Hunt – in contrast to his rival speaking without notes and in rolled-up shirtsleeves – warned: ‘We send the wrong person and catastrophe awaits.’ Mr Hunt, said to be the richest member of the Cabinet from his previous career publishing educational guides, also stressed his background as an ‘entrepreneur’ would be crucial to his approach to Brexit.
However, Mr Hunt faced questions suggesting that as a Remain voter in the 2016 referendum, he was not the person to deliver Brexit.
He also poked fun at himself by recalling his extraordinary gaffe last year when he referred to his Chinese wife as being Japanese.
The meeting took place in the same Birmingham conference hall which last year witnessed Mr Johnson’s show-stealing appearance at the annual Tory Party conference.
Mr Johnson appeared to get the warmer reception from party members yesterday, receiving a standing ovation from about a third of the audience.
In contrast, the Foreign Secretary was greeted with polite applause when he finished speaking.
But Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan last night said the event was a victory for Mr Hunt.
He added: ‘Thursday was peak Boris, now it is all to play for.’
One Tory member who was undecided before the debate – Tim Sinclair from Stratford-upon-Avon – said he was now backing Mr Hunt for showing ‘prime ministerial qualities’.
He criticised Mr Johnson for not addressing the issue of the row with his partner, saying his refusal to answer questions ‘sows doubts about both what happened last night and his ability to tackle hard questions of state and give straight, direct answers’.
The meeting was the first of 16 leadership hustings around the country in the next few weeks as the party’s 160,000 members prepare to vote.
Mr Johnson later went to a meeting of 400 Tory activists in former Cabinet Minister Andrew Mitchell’s Sutton Coldfield constituency.