If I were Rishi Sunak, I wouldn’t feel too happy about Boris Johnson’s statement tonight. The disgraced former PM said that he had 102 MPs willing to nominate him, though only a few shy of 60 have been willing to own that publicly. However, he said that he was not going to submit his nomination because:
You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.
There’s an undercurrent of “and neither can you, Rishi.”
He is showing the likely soon to be PM that he is going to have some shenanigans to deal with in the parliamentary party.
And look how he puts in people’s minds that Rishi is a wee bit short of democratic legitimacy:
I have been attracted because I led our party into a massive election victory less than three years ago – and I believe I am therefore uniquely placed to avert a general election now.
A general election would be a further disastrous distraction just when the government must focus on the economic pressures faced by families across the country.
Whether his group of acolytes would actually force a general election remains to be seen, but he’s making sure that Rishi knows that he could if we wanted to.
Some will think that this was his cunning plan all along – to show off his own power.
This way he gets to lie on Caribbean beaches when he should be in Parliament, and make a fortune on the speaking circuit in the States, while being a thorn in the side of his successor. He might consider that a good position to be in.
For the rest of us, it signals more political chaos and distraction from what the people of this country need.
Our Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper, has repeated our call for a General Election now, calling the Tory leadership contest a farce:
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