BORIS Johnson has moved to distance himself from reports claiming he would resist any attempt by Theresa May to demote him in a Cabinet reshuffle.
The Foreign Secretary said “friends and allies” quoted in media reports were not speaking for him and did not represent his views. In a WhatsApp message to Conservative MPs, he suggested they were “some sinister band of imposters”.
His comments followed newspaper reports claimed he would refuse to go if May tried to move him to a lesser post. One Johnson backer was quoted referring to a “stench of death” emanating from Downing Street.
In his message, Johnson said: “I am frankly fed up to the back teeth with all this. I do not know who these people are.
“I do not know if they are really my friends and allies or if they represent some sinister band of imposters.
“I heartily disagree with the sense, tone and spirit of what they are quoted as saying. Whoever they are, they do not speak for me.”
Following the turmoil of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, May has faced repeated questions as to whether Johnson was “unsackable” due to her weakened position.
Asked what she might do with him, May told a newspaper: “It has never been my style to hide from a challenge and I’m not going to start now.”
Many Tory MPs are understood to be furious about what they regard as Johnson’s disloyalty, setting out his own “red lines” on the Brexit negotiations in defiance of Government policy, and want him removed.
Over the weekend, however, pro-Brexit MPs hit back, urging May to get rid of Chancellor Philip Hammond, who has argued for a “softer”, pro-business Brexit that would protect jobs and investment.
An unnamed Cabinet minister claimed Hammond had “completely failed”, was “miserable” and was “making Brexit hard”.
Senior backbencher Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the steering committee of the European Research Group of MPs, used a newspaper column to attack Hammond’s department, although not the Chancellor himself.
Fellow Tory MP Nadine Dorries was more direct saying: “If I were Prime Minister the person I’d be demoting or sacking would be Philip Hammond. I just don’t think he has been 100 per cent on board.”
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