The UK’s leadership contest was yesterday rocked by reports that police were called to a late-night “row” between front-runner Boris Johnson and his partner, just hours before campaigning opened to win over grassroots Conservatives.
The Guardian said officers were alerted early on Friday after a neighbor said there had been a loud altercation involving screams, shouts and bangs at the south London property, shortly after the former British secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs had secured his place in the final run-off to become British prime minister.
The paper said that Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds could be heard telling the former London mayor to “get off me” and “get out of my flat.”
Photo: AP
London Metropolitan Police said it responded to a call from a local resident, but that “all occupants of the address ... were all safe and well.”
Johnson is the runaway favorite to beat British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jeremy Hunt, but would face questions over the incident when he and Hunt start a month-long nationwide tour to win over the grassroots Conservatives, who have the final say.
Whoever takes the Conservative Party leadership in the week beginning July 22 — and therefore becomes prime minister — would then face the looming Brexit deadline of Oct. 31.
The battle is likely to feature pledges from both contenders to take the UK out of the EU safely and in one piece, succeeding where outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May repeatedly failed.
However, the race might ultimately turn into a popularity contest between Johnson — pugnacious, but affable with a tendency for gaffes — and the more diplomatic, low-key Hunt.
The “row” was splashed across the front pages of most newspapers yesterday and while bookmakers were still betting for Johnson, pundits said the incident could harm his chances.
“Much will depend on the next 24 hours and whether the audio said to have been recorded by a concerned neighbor emerges,” the Times newspaper said. “At the very least it will ensure a leadership race that had started to look like a formality might in fact be something of more consequence.”
After the lawmakers whittled down the original field of 13, it is now up to the 160,000 or so paid-up Conservative members to select the center-right party’s next leader.
According to Times commentator Matthew Parris, the group comprises “classic shire Tories,” as well as poorer urban workers who are anti-European and more populist in their views.
The winner would need to succeed in pushing a deal with the EU through parliament, or face the prospect of leaving without a deal, which lawmakers have warned could collapse the government and trigger a general election.
With arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party ahead in the polls, Johnson is widely viewed as the one Conservative who could compete in the party’s heartlands.
A poll for the Daily Telegraph — for which Johnson writes a column — showed six out of 10 Brexit Party backers jumping over to the Conservatives should the man known simply as Boris take charge.
Hunt and Johnson were yesterday to appear in Birmingham, England, for the first of 16 “hustings” — occasionally rowdy events where candidates field audience questions — three days before the third anniversary of the Brexit vote.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work