Boris Johnson urges Tories to ‘chuck Chequers – not Theresa May’ amid leadership speculation
3 min read
Boris Johnson has urged fellow Conservatives to “chuck Chequers – not Theresa May” as speculation about the Prime Minister’s leadership grows.
A string of Tory Brexiteers are said to have spent Tuesday evening openly discussing a way of toppling Mrs May.
But challenging them directly in an interview with the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said: “It’s not about the leadership. It’s about the policy.
“It’s not about changing prime minister. It’s about chucking Chequers.”
His latest intervention came as Tory grandee Lord Heseltine suggested Mr Johnson could yet become Prime Minister.
The former deputy PM - a frequent critic of Mr Johnson - told BBC Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster that he had not “done himself any irreparable harm” with his recent interventions on the burqa and Brexit.
He said: “Has he done himself any irreparable harm? Well I don’t think he has.
"What you have to say to yourself is who the Tory Party membership of the House of Commons is going to choose to send to the activists of the Conservative Party in any leadership campaign.
"Whilst there is strong opposition to Boris, I find it difficult to think of two names that they will send that don't include him.
"And, if he gets before the activists, my guess is that he will get the nomination."
But Guto Harri - a former key adviser to Mr Johnson - disagreed, saying the former mayor of London had become a "hugely divisive figure".
Mr Johnson is facing intense scrutiny of his private life following the announcement he is to split from his wife of 25 years. He has meanwhile drawn criticism from some Conservative colleagues for likening Theresa May's Brexit strategy to a "suicide vest".
Mr Harri said: "Somebody needs to take the spade out of his hand or it looks to me like he's digging his political grave.
"It's one thing to deploy humour and charm and intellect and all these things he has in spades which he has done brilliantly in the past, not least his exquisite gift of language.
"He's become more tribal, and tribal within the tribe, so that he would now be - if he were to become leader - a hugely divisive figure.
"And that for somebody who is equipped to be a unifying figure, who's equipped to create a feel-good factor, who's equipped to take us all on whatever journey because he makes it fun, he makes it exciting and he is a true visionary.
"Unfortunately he is now dragging us into a place where we think that we can joke about suicide vests and that we can be sexually incontinent."
Mr Johnson meanwhile told an audience in Washington DC that the Conservatives needed to return to "the great achievements of the Thatcher era" and help people "to seize control of their own destiny".
In comments that will be seen as a dig at the direciton of the party under Mrs May, the ex-foreign secretary said: "One of the reasons people voted to Leave was because they felt they were not getting a fair suck of the sauce bottle, as they say.
"People are stuck in entry-level jobs and they’re not progressing. And we’re not focusing on those issues, we’re not helping people enough. People are not being made to feel needed enough. And it’s a serious problem."
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