Boris Johnson is facing the wrath of Tory backbenchers after his latest intervention on Brexit threatened to throw the government into fresh chaos.
MPs openly told the Foreign Secretary to ‘grow up or go’ after he drew a series of red lines for negotiations with the EU.
Mr Johnson has been criticised for manoeuvring to take over from Theresa May in the wake of her disastrous election – which saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority.
But in a sign of the PM’s weakness, Mrs May dodged questions this morning about whether he was ‘unsackable’.
Boris Johnson, pictured leaving his London home today, is facing the wrath of Tory backbenchers after his latest intervention on Brexit threatened to throw the government into fresh chaos
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the Prime Minister, who is marking her 61st birthday, acknowledged that her decision to call a snap poll on June 8 had caused serious damage
She also refused to say whether she would resign if no deal is struck with the EU in negotiations.
Mr Johnson reopened Cabinet splits on the eve of Tory conference in Manchester this week by warning he is not prepared to stay shackled to the EU for ‘a second longer’ once a mooted two-year transition ends in March 2021.
The Brexiteer also complained of a lack of optimism about cutting ties with the EU, saying the ‘Westminster bubble’ was out of touch.
Damaging claims in the Sunday Times also make clear the depth of Mr Johnson’s disdain for the PM.
He is said to have mocked Mrs May as a ‘slave’ to her powerful ex-aides Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
‘That’s modern slavery right there,’ he reportedly told a colleague, in a wounding reference to Mrs May’s high-profile campaign to eliminate modern-day slavery.
A new documentary – Boris Johnson: Blond Ambition, by Channel 4 News political editor Gary Gibbon and set to be broadcast tonight – reports that the Foreign Secretary privately believes that Mrs May will not remain as PM for long.
‘He thinks she’s got a year at most,’ said a friend.
Mr Johnson is said to realise he has just one more go at the top job as the Tory rank and file are already turning to a new generation of MPs to provide the next leader.
‘They think the whole Cabinet is tainted by the Election,’ one Tory MP has said.
In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show today, Mrs May said she was sorry Tory MPs had lost their seats at the election but insisted she had ‘listened’ to the verdict of voters
Mrs May, pictured in Manchester for the Tory conference today, insisted the Tories would not follow Labour by offering massive spending commitments
Former minister Anna Soubry said the public was fed up with ‘Tory wars’ and Mr Johnson should ‘grow up or go’
There are reports that Mrs May had first tried to manage Mr Johnson by issuing a Thatcher-style slap-down, but that later No 10 resorted to ‘an ego-stroking strategy’ to make him look like he was part of the trusted inner circle.
Asked in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show today whether Mr Johnson is ‘unsackable’ – something she has explicitly rejected in the past – the PM said: ‘Let’s be very clear about what we have here in this government.
‘We have a government that is determined to build a country that works for everyone.
JAVID BLAMES A DATE WITH HIS WIFE FOR SOUNDING DISLOYAL
Sajid Javid blamed an over running interview for him walking out without endorsing the PM
Sajid Javid today dismissed claims he was disloyal to the Prime Minister by insisting he walked out of an interview for a date with his wife.
The Communities Secretary abruptly left an interview with The Observer, declaring they were ‘out of time’ when he was asked about Theresa May’s future.
But he played down the exchange in a TV interview today, making an effusive declaration of loyalty to the PM, insisting she ‘should’ lead the next election campaign if she wanted to.
He told Sky News: ‘They make it sound a lot more dramatic than it was.
‘It was an interview that was over running. I had a date with my wife and I did not want to be late.
‘It’s as simple as that.’
Mr Javid praised Mrs May’s leadership on ‘so many issues’ and said: ‘If she wants to continue to run the party and ask for the leadership of the country again, she would have my support and I think the support of almost every minister and Cabinet minister out there.’
‘I think the people watching are interested in what we are going to do for their jobs and their futures and their children’s future.’
Told her authority over the Cabinet was gone, Mrs May claimed: ‘What I have is a Cabinet that is united in the mission of this government.
‘That is what you will see this week: united in a mission to build a country that works for everyone and agrees on the approach we take in Florence.’
Referring to Mr Johnson’s apparent rebellion, Marr told the PM her ‘nest of singing birds’ had at least one ‘enormous cuckoo and several vultures’.
She claimed: ‘Boris is absolutely behind the Florence speech and the line that we have taken.
‘What Boris is saying is the importance of the approach we have taken in the Florence speech, that has moved the discussion on, it has created a momentum in the negotiations.’
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson is among those who have rebuked Mr Johnson for stirring trouble.
Former minister Nicky Morgan, who has been pushing for a softer approach to Brexit, laid into Mr Johnson for ‘undermining’ the government.
‘The staunch Brexiteers simply won’t countenance the necessary give-and-take. They therefore seek to undermine such an approach at every turn, as we see from Boris Johnson’s new set of red lines,’ she wrote in the Independent.
‘The UK Government should be focusing on getting the UK out of the EU in the least damaging way, not debating arbitrary red lines set down to try to curry favour with those who want a utopian ultra free trade, low tax, minimal regulation state.’
Fellow Tory MP Anna Soubry wrote on Twitter: ‘@NickyMorgan01 @RuthDavidsonMSP talking much sense. Ppll are fed up w Tory wars & Brexit mixed messages. @BorisJohnson must grow up or go.’
Tory grandee Lord Heseltine also repeated his call for Mrs May to sack Mr Johnson.
‘The whole thing is unsustainable – you cannot have a government in which members of the cabinet are voicing opinions which are not consistent, one with the other,’ he told Sky News.
Theresa May, pictured with her husband Philip in Manchester ahead of the Tory Party conference was branded ‘a slave’ to her former aides Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy
Fiona Hill, left, and Nick Timothy resigned following the disastrous election result