A defiant Boris Johnson has turned on Tory opponents demanding he resign, telling them their criticism “doesn’t matter” and they have no policy ideas.
Speaking 24 hours after two disastrous by-election defeats, the prime minister refused to accept he “personally contributed” to them through his lawbreaking behaviour in the Partygate scandal.
Mr Johnson also made clear he was not capable of some “sort of psychological transformation” to change his character, saying: “I think your listeners will know that’s not going to happen.”
Instead, he dismissed senior Conservative figures calling for him to go – including former leaders Michael Howard and William Hague – arguing they are not putting forward any alternative.
The prime minister claimed the “only argument of substance” made by any of his critics was “for us to go back into the EU single market”.
And he told BBC Radio 4: “As a leader you have to try to distinguish between criticism that really matters and the criticism that doesn’t matter.”
Mr Johnson was interviewed as Tory rebels to seize control of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers in elections next month, to force a rule change to allow another no-confidence vote.
That could be held in the autumn if the looming contempt inquiry into whether he lied to parliament over the No 10 parties is damning.
But the prime minister sought to put a positive spin on only 59 per cent of his MPs backing him in this month’s confidence vote, claiming: “I have a renewed mandate from my colleagues and I’m going to continue to deliver.”
And he insisted the public wanted to hear about his policies – not his personality – saying: “I want to get on with changing and reforming our systems and economy.
“If we’re going to have an argument about politics, let’s have an argument about how the railways run, that is a subject of engrossing fascination for people up and down the country because of the rail strikes.”
I think the play here is twofold.
Firstly, public fatigue, psychologically people can’t stay angry for long, most people will, in time, return to the equilibrium of a middling state of mind, so unless there is a steady drip of new things to be angry about, people will just accept the status quo.
Secondly, the frog in a pot, if things just continue to get steadily worse people will just get used to the pot getting hotter.
You’ve got to remember that this government has a whole department that is tasked with pyschological nudging, and unless something happens soon, we could be in for a long run of Boris.
They Tories did created this monster.
It’s a bold move from Johnson to claim that a lack of policy ideas is a measure of fitness to lead.
“You’ve got no fans, you’ve got no ~~ground~~ policies”
As a floating voter I have been wondering for a while now what Starmer would do differently? I want some actual details of what Starmer would do rather than just attacking Boris. Throwing punches at Boris is so easy a blind person could hit him. Starmer has been in power a while now, for god sake give us some policy details
The single market thing will have set some bumholes flapping among the party headbangers.
Rejoining the single market is a good idea. That’s canon now. It’s in the lore.
he really is living up to the name “Britain Trump”.
And he is right. No one is fighting this fucking ape.
This man is the embodiment of “head empty just vibes” politics and hopefully it will be his undoing
“I am all out ideas can you give me some of yours labour ?” No wonder the constant criticism of lack of policies is constant from the right wing press they need to copy labours homework and Keir just won’t let them. Save it for the manifesto.
These are your elected representatives being disparaged your poor naive tory voting middle classers…
And he told BBC Radio 4: “As a leader you have to try to distinguish between criticism that really matters and the criticism that doesn’t.”
That is true. But he’s wrong on this specific instance that Partygate does matter, and it matters a lot.
I couldn’t visit my grandfather in his last year before he passed last Sept. However this scumbag and his crew were boozing it up regularly in our highest office. Will never vote for his Govt no matter what other policies they pursue. I hate them.
I hate to say that he is right. We have a one party government now and he can basically do whatever he wants and still remain in power, as the opposition parties are utterly impotent
I’m guessing he wants to hang on so he doesn’t go down in history as the shortest serving Tory PM.
That’s fine – if he leads them to a massive GE loss so the damage inflicted upon the UK in the last 12, miserable years by the Tory party can be reversed then that’ll do nicely.
After his disgusting support of abortion, I think the pro-lifers have plenty.
Didn’t they literally just u turn and pinch a massive labour policy a few weeks ago?
Windfall tax, energy cap. It’s more a lot more than one now that I think about it.
Boris Johnson has a “January 6th” in him. Only question is, how many of the Cabinet will go along with it.
And it’s all going to be whipped up based on Lib Dem / Labour co-operating in certain constituencies. Some extreme parts of the media will call for violence and the Sun/Daily Mail will stay just within the line of legality, but be provocative and antagonistic enough to provoke violence.
The beer Bellied “Fat Les” types in the dive pubs will probably play a role.
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A defiant Boris Johnson has turned on Tory opponents demanding he resign, telling them their criticism “doesn’t matter” and they have no policy ideas.
Speaking 24 hours after two disastrous by-election defeats, the prime minister refused to accept he “personally contributed” to them through his lawbreaking behaviour in the Partygate scandal.
Mr Johnson also made clear he was not capable of some “sort of psychological transformation” to change his character, saying: “I think your listeners will know that’s not going to happen.”
Instead, he dismissed senior Conservative figures calling for him to go – including former leaders Michael Howard and William Hague – arguing they are not putting forward any alternative.
The prime minister claimed the “only argument of substance” made by any of his critics was “for us to go back into the EU single market”.
And he told BBC Radio 4: “As a leader you have to try to distinguish between criticism that really matters and the criticism that doesn’t matter.”
Mr Johnson was interviewed as Tory rebels to seize control of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers in elections next month, to force a rule change to allow another no-confidence vote.
That could be held in the autumn if the looming contempt inquiry into whether he lied to parliament over the No 10 parties is damning.
But the prime minister sought to put a positive spin on only 59 per cent of his MPs backing him in this month’s confidence vote, claiming: “I have a renewed mandate from my colleagues and I’m going to continue to deliver.”
And he insisted the public wanted to hear about his policies – not his personality – saying: “I want to get on with changing and reforming our systems and economy.
“If we’re going to have an argument about politics, let’s have an argument about how the railways run, that is a subject of engrossing fascination for people up and down the country because of the rail strikes.”
I think the play here is twofold.
Firstly, public fatigue, psychologically people can’t stay angry for long, most people will, in time, return to the equilibrium of a middling state of mind, so unless there is a steady drip of new things to be angry about, people will just accept the status quo.
Secondly, the frog in a pot, if things just continue to get steadily worse people will just get used to the pot getting hotter.
You’ve got to remember that this government has a whole department that is tasked with pyschological nudging, and unless something happens soon, we could be in for a long run of Boris.
They Tories did created this monster.
It’s a bold move from Johnson to claim that a lack of policy ideas is a measure of fitness to lead.
“You’ve got no fans, you’ve got no ~~ground~~ policies”
As a floating voter I have been wondering for a while now what Starmer would do differently? I want some actual details of what Starmer would do rather than just attacking Boris. Throwing punches at Boris is so easy a blind person could hit him. Starmer has been in power a while now, for god sake give us some policy details
The single market thing will have set some bumholes flapping among the party headbangers.
Rejoining the single market is a good idea. That’s canon now. It’s in the lore.
he really is living up to the name “Britain Trump”.
And he is right. No one is fighting this fucking ape.
This man is the embodiment of “head empty just vibes” politics and hopefully it will be his undoing
“I am all out ideas can you give me some of yours labour ?” No wonder the constant criticism of lack of policies is constant from the right wing press they need to copy labours homework and Keir just won’t let them. Save it for the manifesto.
These are your elected representatives being disparaged your poor naive tory voting middle classers…
And he told BBC Radio 4: “As a leader you have to try to distinguish between criticism that really matters and the criticism that doesn’t.”
That is true. But he’s wrong on this specific instance that Partygate does matter, and it matters a lot.
I couldn’t visit my grandfather in his last year before he passed last Sept. However this scumbag and his crew were boozing it up regularly in our highest office. Will never vote for his Govt no matter what other policies they pursue. I hate them.
I hate to say that he is right. We have a one party government now and he can basically do whatever he wants and still remain in power, as the opposition parties are utterly impotent
I’m guessing he wants to hang on so he doesn’t go down in history as the shortest serving Tory PM.
That’s fine – if he leads them to a massive GE loss so the damage inflicted upon the UK in the last 12, miserable years by the Tory party can be reversed then that’ll do nicely.
After his disgusting support of abortion, I think the pro-lifers have plenty.
Didn’t they literally just u turn and pinch a massive labour policy a few weeks ago?
Windfall tax, energy cap. It’s more a lot more than one now that I think about it.
Boris Johnson has a “January 6th” in him. Only question is, how many of the Cabinet will go along with it.
And it’s all going to be whipped up based on Lib Dem / Labour co-operating in certain constituencies. Some extreme parts of the media will call for violence and the Sun/Daily Mail will stay just within the line of legality, but be provocative and antagonistic enough to provoke violence.
The beer Bellied “Fat Les” types in the dive pubs will probably play a role.
It’s Coming