The gloves are on! Theresa May is set to meet Borris Johnson for showdown talks
Theresa May is to hold showdown talks with Boris Johnson after her allies rounded on him for ‘backseat driving’ over Brexit.
The Prime Minister has not spoken to her Foreign Secretary since Friday night when he published a 4,000-word essay that was widely seen as a warning against giving in to Remainers in the Cabinet.
But Government sources confirmed last night that the pair will try to settle their differences in the next 24 hours during face-to-face talks in New York, where they are attending a UN conference.
Mr Johnson will seek assurances that Mrs May will not sign up to a deal that will hand tens of billions of pounds to the EU after Brexit.
Some senior Tories believe he could even storm out of the Government over the dispute.
But No 10 is furious about Mr Johnson’s decision to go public with his concerns days before Mrs May is due to make a pivotal speech on Brexit in Florence.
Downing Street is also angry that it was told about the article only shortly before it was published on Friday evening, when Mrs May was being briefed by security chiefs on the Parsons Green attack.
Mr Johnson appeared increasingly isolated in the Cabinet last night as friends of fellow Leave supporters Michael Gove and Priti Patel denied reports that they backed his intervention.
The Prime Minister yesterday sanctioned her closest Cabinet allies to issue a public rebuke to Mr Johnson but backed away from calls to sack him for speaking out. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who has clashed repeatedly with Mr Johnson over Brexit, accused him of behaving like a ‘backseat driver’.
In a scathing intervention, she said she had been ‘too busy’ dealing with the Parsons Green bomb attack on Friday to read the Foreign Secretary’s essay.
Mr Johnson appeared increasingly isolated in the Cabinet last night as friends of fellow Leave supporters Michael Gove and Priti Patel denied reports that they backed his intervention
The prominent Remain supporter crossed swords with Mr Johnson during the EU referendum campaign, saying he is ‘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 the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday.
Miss Rudd said the Prime Minister was ‘driving the car’, and pressed on Mr Johnson’s actions, she replied: ‘You could call it backseat driving.’
She added that Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson ‘has a point’ when she criticised Mr Johnson for submitting his article as London suffered another terror attack.
Miss Rudd said she did not think it was a leadership bid, and that the Foreign Secretary’s contribution to the Government amounted to ‘enthusiasm, energy and sometimes entertainment’.
First Secretary of State Damian Green, another close ally of Mrs May and a prominent Remainer, also weighed in against Mr Johnson, saying: ‘The timing is pretty second order in the big scheme of things, but to pick up from what Amber said, it is absolutely clear to everyone that the driver of the car in this instance is the Prime Minister and it is the job of the rest of us in the Cabinet to agree on a proposal or set of proposals.’
Friends of Mr Gove yesterday denied that he was ‘in cahoots’ with Mr Johnson. A source said the Environment Secretary had been ‘as surprised as anyone’ by the intervention from his former Vote Leave ally.
The two men fell out after the referendum when Mr Gove torpedoed Mr Johnson’s leadership bid by questioning his suitability and trying for the top job himself.
They are now back on cordial terms but unlike Mr Johnson, Mr Gove is said to have accepted the need for a two-year transition during which the UK will have to continue contributing to the EU.
Friends of Miss Patel also denied she supported Mr Johnson’s intervention. The International Development Secretary was a close ally during the referendum campaign, but last night friends said she thought he had been ‘wrong’ to go public with his concerns at such a sensitive time.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: ‘It’s like a school that’s completely out of control and the head teacher is sitting in her office paralysed and impotent.
‘It is complete and absolute loss of authority and the Prime Minister on Monday morning should fire this guy, otherwise her own credibility is reduced to zero.’
But Eurosceptic Tories welcomed Mr Johnson’s intervention as a counterpoint to gloomy assessments by some senior figures, including Chancellor Philip Hammond. Prominent Eurosceptic MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said there was ‘nothing disloyal’ about Mr Johnson’s article.
‘This is the vision of Brexit that people who voted for it want to hear,’ he said. ‘People have had enough of the view that it is just about managed decline. It is the most phenomenal opportunity for the country and that is what Boris articulated so well.
‘Some members of the Government have been putting a rather gloomy gloss on things. Boris is redressing the balance.’
Relations between the Prime Minister and Mr Johnson have been tense for months. Allies of the Foreign Secretary say he is angry and frustrated by Downing Street’s attempts to sideline him over Brexit.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: ‘The PM is leading the Brexit negotiations and Boris is fully behind her in getting the best deal.’