BORIS IN £350M NHS CASH ROW
THE Prime Minister faced calls to sack Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yesterday after he was accused of “backseat driving” by setting out his vision of a hard Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s 4,000-word Brexit blueprint, released just days before a major speech in which Mrs May is expected to offer compromise, was viewed as a challenge to Theresa May’s leadership.
His essay also sparked a furious public spat with the head of the statistics watchdog last night.
In his article, Mr Johnson said Britain should make no payments for access to the European single market after Brexit, and made no mention of the transitional period which the Prime Minister is now thought to favour.
His intervention – which saw him revive the claim, branded “misleading” by the official statistician, that £350m a week could be freed up for the NHS by Brexit – was widely interpreted as the first shot in a leadership bid.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd accused Johnson of “backseat driving”, while Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson criticised him for releasing his comments the day after a terror attack in London.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said Mrs May’s credibility would be “reduced to zero” if she failed to sack the Foreign Secretary today.
But Mr Johnson insisted he was “all behind” the Prime Minister, and Mrs May’s de facto deputy Damian Green said he would not be sacked for comments which he said were in line with the PM’s own speeches on Europe.
Mrs Rudd said she had been “too busy” dealing with the Parsons Green bomb attack to read the opus and criticised the Foreign Secretary for releasing the piece at the time of the blast.
The Prime Minister’s allies have said Mr Johnson will keep his job and suggested “people should calm down”.
Mrs Rudd, a Remain supporter, crossed swords with the Foreign Secretary during the EU referendum campaign, describing him as “not the man you want driving you home”. “What I meant by that is I don’t want him managing the Brexit process,” she told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
Mrs Rudd insisted the Prime Minister is “driving the car” and, when pressed on Mr Johnson’s actions, said: “You could call it backseat driving.”
The Home Secretary described her colleague as an “irrepressible enthusiast” on Brexit who brought “enthusiasm, energy, and some- times entertainment” to the cabinet.
Asked if she had read the article in the Daily Telegraph, she replied: “Unfortunately not. I had rather a lot to do on Friday.
“There was a bomb that nearly went off in Parsons Green.
“Yesterday I chaired Cobra, I went to see the police. No, I didn’t have time to read the piece.”
Mrs Rudd said Ms Davidson “has a point” when she criticised Mr Johnson for submitting the piece as London suffered another terror attack.
Asked if the intervention was helpful, she replied: “I think it is absolutely fine. I would expect nothing less from Boris.”
The Home Secretary has been widely touted as a potential successor to Mrs May and she failed to rule out a bid for the top job. Mrs Rudd insisted she was focused on “keeping people safe” when asked about her future ambitions.
“I haven’t got time for the rest of it,” she said.
Mr Johnson’s decision to release the article just six days before Mrs May is due to set out her plans for Brexit in a speech in Florence prompted claims in the Mail on Sunday that allies of the PM believe the move is “hostile” and “attention seeking”.
A senior minister who backed Remain told the Sunday Telegraph, meanwhile, that Mr Johnson “needs to go and do something else” if he “can’t settle” into his role as Foreign Secretary while a former minister said he was “sailing within an inch of being thrown out of the Government”.
Sir Craig Oliver, former director of communications at Downing Street for David Cameron, said even if the genuine intention was to support the Prime
Minister, it was obvious it would be seen in Westminster as a “direct challenge”.
But as the furore raged, Mr Johnson insisted in a tweet he was “looking forward to PM’s Florence speech”.
“All behind Theresa for a glorious Brexit,” he added.
Sir Vince said the Prime Minister’s failure to sack Mr Johnson showed she was “paralysed and impotent”.
The First Secretary of State, Mr Green, said Mr Johnson would not be sacked over his intervention.
He told Sunday With Paterson on Sky News: “No, he isn’t and the reason is, he, like the rest of the Cabinet, like the Prime Minister, is all about wanting to get the best deal for the British people.”
Mr Green suggested “people should calm down” after a “weekend of excitement” and said he did not think there was anything surprising in the article and insisted it did not contradict Mrs May’s last major speech on Brexit.
Meanwhile, the head of the statistics watchdog yesterday refused to back down in the public spat with Mr Johnson over his controversial £350m Brexit claims.
Mr Johnson accused Sir David Norgrove of a “complete misrepresentation” of his views and called on him to withdraw the criticism.
But the UK Statistics Authority chairman “stands by” his accusation that Mr Johnson’s decision to revive the controversial claim that up to £350m a week extra would be freed up for public spending after Brexit was a “clear misuse” of official figures. A spokesman said the Foreign Secretary’s response “doesn’t alter his view”, adding: “Sir David stands by his letter.”
The row erupted after Sir David published a letter to Mr Johnson saying he was “surprised and disappointed” the £350m figure had been revisited in his 4,000-word Brexit blueprint.
He stood by the criticism when the Foreign Secretary’s aides later claimed he was “absolutely fine” with the piece.
Mr Johnson then penned his own letter, which claimed the statistics boss had privately conceded he was “more concerned” by the headlines in the coverage of the controversial article and “accepted that I was not responsible for those”.
He wrote: “I must say that I was surprised and disappointed by your letter of today, since it was based on what appeared to be a wilful distortion of the text of my article.
“When we spoke you conceded that you were more concerned by the headline and the BBC coverage, though you accepted that I was not responsible for those.
“I suggest if the BBC coverage offends you that you write to the BBC.
“You say that I claim that there would be £350m that ‘might be available for extra public spending’ when we leave the EU.
“This is a complete misrepresentation of what I said and I would like you to withdraw it.
“I in fact said: ‘once we have settled our accounts we will take back control of roughly £350m per week. It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS’.
“That is very different from claiming that there would be an extra £350m available for public spending and I am amazed that you should impute such a statement to me.”
It is not the first time the £350m figure has been disputed by the Authority.
The watchdog initially warned Vote Leave the number lacked “clarity” because it referred only to the UK’s gross annual contribution and did not take into account Britain’s rebate or money that comes back from the EU.
It went on to rebuke the group for continuing to use the “misleading” figure during the referendum campaign, saying it was “disappointed” by the approach.
Labour’s Chuka Umunna, a supporter of Open Britain group campaigning for a soft Brexit, said: “Yet again Boris’ outright lying has been exposed by Britain’s statistics watchdog. The £350m figure was simply wrong during the referendum campaign, and it’s wrong now.
“Boris’ hard Brexit plans will mean less money for our NHS, not more. The IFS are forecasting a £58bn hole in the public finances as a direct result of Brexit, which will be paid for in higher taxes and lower NHS spending.
“Boris’ compulsive lying means he has lost the right to be heard on Brexit. He should give his leadership ambitions a rest and apologise for his continual use of dodgy statistics.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: “Boris’ £350m lie has been exposed yet again. He knows an extreme Brexit would damage the economy and mean less cash for the NHS.
“I’m glad to see the independent UK Statistics Authority has the courage to slap Boris down. It’s a shame the same can’t be said of Theresa May.”