Get behind Boris or we’ll be out, Rudd tells Hammond
AMBER RUDD today warns Philip Hammond to support “her friend” Boris Johnson or face Labour winning a general election by Christmas.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who backed Jeremy Hunt in the leadership contest, urges MPs to now “come together again no matter who wins”.
Ms Rudd’s warning comes as Mr Johnson prepares to demonstrate his own credentials as a “unity” prime minister by retaining Michael Gove in the Cabinet despite a bitter history between the pair.
The former foreign secretary is believed to have decided to promote Mr Gove if, as expected, he is announced as the winner of the contest on Tuesday morning. One option is to beef up Mr Gove’s current role by handing him responsibility for government efforts to tackle climate change.
Meanwhile, he is expected to appoint Sajid Javid, the Remain-voting Home Secretary, as chancellor. Mr Johnson is likely to wait to see the size of his expected victory over Mr Hunt before making a final decision on whether to move him from his role as Foreign Secretary after entering Downing Street on Wednesday.
It comes as The Telegraph today reveals that Mr Johnson is considering plans to put the southern half of High Speed 2 on hold.
Ms Rudd’s call for a “healing process” comes after Mr Hammond pledged to do “everything in my power” to stop a future prime minister suspending Parliament in order to
deliver a no-deal Brexit – a move that Mr Johnson has refused to rule out. The Chancellor even indicated that he could vote to bring the Government down.
During an appearance on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show today he is expected to indicate whether he will quit his post if Mr Johnson is announced as the new Tory leader, rather than wait to be sacked.
Writing for telegraph.co.uk, John Penrose, the Northern Ireland minister on whose legislation Mr Hammond refused to support the Government in a vote last week, suggested that Mr Hammond was perceived as part of a “fifth column” trying to stop Brexit despite being “unwilling to say so publicly”.
In her article, Ms Rudd states: “Just as the Conservative Party came together after that EU referendum, it must now come together again no matter who wins. The alternative could be Corbyn for Christmas.”
In a significant turnaround after saying in 2016 that he was “not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”, Ms Rudd says that both Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt are “ready for No10”. She has previously campaigned against a no-deal exit, much to the fury of Brexiteers who believed she would be sacked by Mr Johnson. But last week she declared that a no-deal exit on Oct 31 should remain in the Government’s “armoury” – a position adopted by Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson.
Mr Penrose said it was “not good enough” for pro-EU MPs opposed to a no-deal exit to be “vague”.
“By giving half-answers, everyone assumes they’re really a camouflaged, fifth-column part of the Remainer tribe, trying to stop Brexit from happening but unwilling to say so publicly,” he writes.