LONDON — Boris Johnson may be unable to resist swiping at Rishi Sunak — but Sunak thinks that’s just “great.”
“It’s great that we’ve got former prime ministers who want to contribute, still, to public life and feel that they can do that,” the current U.K. prime minister told the Conservative Home website in an interview Thursday.
Johnson — ousted after a spate of Cabinet resignations last year — has proved a thorn in Sunak’s side during his fledgling premiership.
As a backbench MP, Johnson has intervened to criticize Sunak on multiple occasions — particularly on his post-Brexit Windsor Framework deal on the Northern Ireland protocol. To Sunak’s chagrin, Johnson and a very small band of Tory MPs, including his fellow former PM Liz Truss, voted against that deal.
Johnson has also attacked Sunak’s decision not to send fighter jets to Ukraine. But if Sunak minds he isn’t letting on. He said of the interventions from Johnson, and his immediate predecessor Liz Truss who has also been vocal: “That’s a good thing and we should welcome that.”
Sunak played a key role in Johnson’s fall from power, resigning as his chancellor last summer with a call for government to be done “properly, competently and seriously.” Many in Johnson’s orbit blame Sunak’s resignation for setting off the mass exodus which would follow and eventually force out the then-prime minister.
The current PM defended his role in that process, arguing that “there was a fundamental difference about economic policy,” between him and Johnson and that he resigned “for reasons that were personal to me.”
“What happened thereafter was not my doing,” Sunak claimed.
Asked if the door was closed on any potential Johnson return to his Cabinet, Sunak swerved the question.
“I rarely comment on cabinet appointments. You wouldn’t expect me to do that with Boris or anybody else for that matter,” he said.
