LONDON — Boris Johnson channeled Arnold Schwarzenegger, vowed to fight for “total Brexit” and carried on beefing with his successor as he awaits what’s expected to be a damning report on his conduct.
So just another day in British politics.
The former prime minister is locked in a war of words with current leader Rishi Sunak, accusing him Monday of “talking rubbish” in a fight over Johnson’s attempt to reward allies with places in the U.K.’s unelected House of Lords.
Sunak — who served as Johnson’s top finance minister before dramatically quitting last year — told reporters Monday that Johnson “asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right,” as the two men traded public barbs about the vetting process for putting Johnson’s ex-colleagues in the Lords.
In an overnight message to the pro-Brexit Daily Express newspaper, Johnson — who announced last week that he’s stepping down from parliament — struck a defiant tone and riffed on the Terminator.
“We must fully deliver on Brexit and on the 2019 manifesto,” he said. “We must smash Labour at the next election.”
And he declared: “Nothing less than absolute victory and total Brexit will do – and as the great Arnold Schwarzenegger said, ‘I’ll be back.’” Johnson raised eyebrows last year when he used his final House of Commons session as prime minister to declare: “Hasta la vista, baby,” another iconic Terminator line.
Johnson’s announcement on Friday that he’s quitting as an MP — along with furious broadsides at both the parliamentary probe into his conduct in the Partygate affair and Sunak’s leadership of the Conservative Party — have dominated discourse in Westminster for days.
The Times reported Tuesday that the privileges committee’s report into Johnson, now expected Wednesday, will conclude he misled parliament when he told MPs he had received assurances that coronavirus social distancing rules were followed in No. 10.
Meanwhile Johnson ally Nadine Dorries — who had been expecting a place in the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honors list — took to the pages of the Daily Mail to hit out at “posh boys” in No. 10 Downing Street for stopping “a girl, born into poverty in Liverpool, from reaching the House of Lords.” Downing Street has flatly denied intervening in the vetting process.
Asked about the controversy Monday, and whether Johnson had tried to undermine him, Sunak said: “Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right. That was to either overrule the [House of Lords appointments] committee or make promises to people.
“I wasn’t prepared to do that. As I said, I didn’t think it was right. And if people don’t like that, then tough.”
