British Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempt to silence Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in the Brexit debate backfired as he gave an interview in which he openly discussed leaving office.
May is to renew her efforts to show who is in charge tomorrow, with a special Cabinet meeting on the eve of her long-awaited Brexit speech in Florence, Italy.
On Monday, she told reporters on a trip to North America that Johnson’s 4,000-word essay on his Brexit vision was not authorized and that she is in control of a government with an agreed policy.
Photo: Reuters
Johnson, already in New York shaking hands with US President Donald Trump at the UN, responded by giving an interview in which he openly discussed Brexit options and then appeared to leave open the possibility he might quit in protest at May’s handling of delicate matters, such as payments into the EU budget and the length of the transition.
Asked if he was going to resign, he replied: “I think, if I may say, you may be barking slightly up the wrong tree,” but then went on to discuss what life would be like once he had left his job.
“When the burden of office is lifted from my shoulders, I will of course look back with great pride on my time doing all sorts of things,” he said.
The strain between May and her top diplomat has the potential to become explosive at a critical time for Brexit negotiations and could damage them both with a potential showdown in New York.
May has lost her parliamentary majority and he could lose his job and a shot at becoming the next Conservative Party leader.
Johnson said in the interview that it was important not to “try and find rows where there are really not rows.”
Behind his insistence that “there is one driver in this car — it’s Theresa,” he also created distance between himself and those in May’s team — including Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and British Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis — who want a transition period lasting several years that includes paying into the EU budget.
“On the transition period, I can see some vital importance of having some clarity and certainty since what all of us want is that it should not be too long,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Dominic Cummings, the campaign director of Vote Leave and an ally of Johnson, on Monday launched one of his periodic attacks on the government’s handling of Brexit. His focus was the government’s decision to begin formal exit negotiations without preparing for the possibility that there would not be a deal.
“The shambles now unfolding is a direct consequence of that historic unforgivable blunder,” Cummings wrote on Twitter.
May earlier said she did not give her approval to Johnson to write his newspaper piece setting out his vision for Britain’s “glorious” future outside the EU and asserted that she — not he — was in charge.
The timing of the piece — on the day of a terrorist attack — drew immediate rebuke. Cabinet ministers accused Johnson of seeking to dictate government policy like a “backseat” driver.
“This government is driven from the front, and we’re all going to the same destination,’’ May told reporters on board her plane as she traveled to Ottawa on Monday. “Look, Boris is Boris. I am clear what the government is doing and what the Cabinet is agreed on.’’
Political observers saw in Johnson’s intervention an attempt to railroad May into taking a harder line on Brexit, ahead of the major speech she is making on the subject in Italy on Friday, as more dovish voices like Hammond have been more vocal about driving the direction of Brexit.
He risks the wrath of colleagues if he is seen to be instrumental in pushing May out and that could undermine his own chances of succeeding her.
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