Cabinet minister Liam Fox says Boris Johnson should give 'explanation' over domestic row
4 min read
Boris Johnson should give an "explanation" of the altercation which saw police called out to the flat he shares with his partner Carrie Symonds, Liam Fox has said.
The International Trade Secretary said it would be "easier" if Mr Johnson - who batted away questions about the incident at a hustings on Saturday - shed light on what had happened.
Mr Johnson, who is the frontrunner in the race to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister, has been under scrutiny since a recording obtained by The Guardian detailed a noisy row at the Camberwell flat.
In the recording, handed to the paper by a neighbour, Mr Johnson can be heard shouting "get off my fucking laptop" at Ms Symonds before there is a loud noise.
Ms Symonds is meanwhile heard telling the MP to "get off me" and "get out of my flat".
Asked about the reports by the BBC's Andrew Marr, Dr Fox said: "I think that the key thing for us to focus on is what candidates are promising.
"They are, after all, going to be our Prime Minister.
"For the Conservative Party they’re going to lead us into a general election, so we need to hear the issues which is why I hope we’ll see both Boris and Jeremy debating in public the issues.
"And I think that it’s inevitable there’s a focus on private lives. That does not concern me.
"What I’m concerned about are the issues."
But he said: "I think it’s always easier to just give an explanation... and the key thing is then how you get onto the issue.
"What we can’t have is it being a distraction from explanations about wider policy and where we go to and when."
The intervention came after allies of Mr Hunt told the Sunday Times that Mr Johnson's private life could leave him open to blackmail if he ends up becoming Prime Minister.
A Cabinet source told the paper: “There will be things in his private life that we don’t know about... There’s the danger that people leak what they have over him or blackmail him with it.”
But Dr Fox - who said he was not the source of that briefing - rejected the idea that Mr Johnson was unfit for office.
"Boris has been the Foreign Secretary who is in charge of MI6, for example," he said.
"Do you think that Theresa May would have made him the Foreign Secretary if there were genuine worries about him being a security risk?
"I think we’ve got to get away from these distractions again and talk about the policy issues."
Meanwhile fellow Cabinet minister Liz Truss, a key backer of Mr Johnson's bid for Number 10, said the row was a "private matter".
"There's no point in asking me," the Chief Secretary to the Treasury told the BBC's John Pineaar.
"I believe it's a private matter. I don't think the public are concerned about that.
"And I think that, you know, Boris is somebody who's served for eight years as mayor of London, did a brilliant job, he's served as Foreign Secretary.
"People know what he's like in office and that's what's important."
That view was echoed by Rishi Sunak, another Tory MP who is backing Mr Johnson for the top job, who told Sky News' Sophy Ridge that the police had had "no cause for any further action" after two police cars and a van arrived to investigate the incident.
"And given that's what the police have said, and it's clearly a private incident - I wasn't there, you weren't there - I think we should just leave it at that," he saod.
Bur Labour’s Andrew Gwynne told the same show: “In one sense, of course, it is a private matter, but when you’re running for public office, when you are wanting to be the prime minister of the UK, then these matters are in the public interest.”
'PUBLIC INTEREST'
On Saturday night the neighbour who recorded and contacted the police over the incident, Tom Penn, defended his decision to do so and hit out at "bizarre and fictitious allegations" against him and his wife, Eve Leigh.
He told The Guardian he had been worried about his neighbour's safety, adding: "I hope that anybody would have done the same thing."
Mr Penn said: "Once clear that no one was harmed, I contacted the Guardian, as I felt it was of important public interest."
In a statement, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "At 00:24hrs on Friday, 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident in [south London]. The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour.
"Police attended and spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well. There were no offences or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action."
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