Theresa May drops major hint she could demote Boris Johnson
3 min read
Theresa May has hinted she could demote Boris Johnson as she bids to reassert her ailing authority with a major shake-up of her top team.
Asked how to tackle the problematic Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister said it had “never been my style to hide from a challenge, adding that she wanted “the best people in my Cabinet”.
But her Cabinet colleague has issued a rallying call to get behind her today, branding Tory MPs who might be plotting to bring her down “nutters”.
Mr Johnson repeatedly challenged Mrs May on Brexit in the run-up to the disastrous Conservative party conference last week, before making a major diplomatic gaffe at the annual get-together.
In her first interview since her own nightmare conference speech which led to a plot to oust her being revealed, Mrs May suggested her Tory colleague could be removed from his job.
“It has never been my style to hide from a challenge and I’m not going to start now,” she told the Sunday Times.
“I’m the PM, and part of my job is to make sure I always have the best people in my Cabinet, to make the most of the wealth of talent available to me in the party.”
She added: “I didn’t come into politics for an easy life.”
A top figure close to the Prime Minister told the paper: “There is not a binary choice between keeping Boris and sacking Boris.”
The Times says the reshuffle is planned for after the European Council meeting on 19 and 20 October.
Mr Johnson angered Tory MPs by going rogue with his own Brexit vision then setting out his own ‘red lines’ on the transitional deal Britain gets for after it quits the EU.
But after backing the Prime Minister in a WhatsApp group of Tory MPs this week the Foreign Secretary has come out today with a full-throated cry to support her.
“Are we really going to be stampeded myopically over the edge of the gorge, with an election that no one wants?” he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
“‘Quo quo scelesti ruitis?’ as Horace put it at the beginning of a fresh bout of Rome’s ghastly civil wars and which roughly translates as: ‘What do you think you are doing you nutters?’”
RESHUFFLES AND PLOTS
According to the Sun on Sunday party chair Patrick McLoughlin could be dumped in the expected reshuffle while the next generation of MPs – including James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat – could be ushered in.
A senior source told the paper: “She must bring in fresh blood so we can see who’s got what it takes to lead us into the next election.”
And in a further restatement of her authority Mrs May also stripped two MEPs of the Tory whip yesterday after they voted to block progress on Britain’s Brexit talks.
But plots to topple her are still swirling, despite one led by former Tory chair Grant Shapps appearing to have lost steam after he was outed as the ringleader on Friday.
The Times says on Thursday night three Cabinet ministers discussed forcing her to quit, while others want an “orderly transition” to a new leader.
It adds that half the Cabinet wants Mrs May to quit in the next two years and even her husband Philip harbours concerns about her welfare.
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