LONDON — Boris Johnson confronted then-Prince Charles over criticism of a controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, Johnson’s former communications chief claimed Tuesday.
Guto Harri, who served as director of communications at No. 10 Downing Street, said the former prime minister had “squared up” to the future king at a Commonwealth meeting in Rwanda last June. Johnson’s allies branded the account “inaccurate.”
Britain has signed a deal to deport asylum seekers to the East African country — a move criticized by human rights campaigners and challenged in the courts.
Johnson and Charles’ meeting took place in the wake of media reports — not explicitly denied by Clarence House at the time — that the then-prince of Wales had branded the proposal “appalling.” Johnson has previously described the meeting between the two men as “a good old chinwag.”
But, writing in the Daily Mail Tuesday as he promotes a new podcast, Harri contradicted that rosy briefing.
“What actually happened was less amicable,” he said, claiming that Johnson had instead gone in “quite hard” at the meeting, “essentially squaring up to the prince and confronting him about what he — as unelected royalty — had said about the actions of a democratically elected government.”
According to Harri, Johnson challenged the future king — meant to stay above the political fray — on the media briefing, arguing that Charles could have had his team “ring the newspapers and kill the story” but chose not to.
Harri said ties between the two men had been frayed for years and that Charles would be “relieved that Boris had left No. 10 before he ascended to the throne.”
The Daily Mail cited “sources close to” Johnson as saying: “This account is simply inaccurate and does not reflect the conversation that took place. Boris Johnson has had nothing to do with this podcast, had no knowledge of it and deplores any attempt to report such conversations in public.”
Pressed on the claim on LBC Radio Tuesday morning, Harri doubled down, saying the pair had had “a bit of a showdown” because the “the man who is now king criticised what was A: extremely popular government policy; B: very central government policy; and C: on the eve of the two of them going to the very place at the heart of the story, Rwanda.”
“Obviously they didn’t square up to get in the ring,” he added. “But Boris, rightly, challenged the unelected royal at the time.”
