Boris Johnson attempts to derail bids for successors

• 

Senior Tories accused UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson of attempting to ruin Rishi Sunak’s bid to become the next PM.  Johnson is also arraigned for refusing to leave Downing Street willingly resulting in a leadership race fueled by bitter infighting.

Three MPs entered the leadership race as of Friday night. According to a senior MP, the battle for leadership following the Johnson era could inflict more damage on the Tories than the fall of Margaret Thatcher over 30 years ago. 

Another senior party member argued that Johnson has been actively installing inapt MPs to middle-ranking and junior government positions knowing that he was inevitably going to have to step down. Johnson, according to the senior party member did that to “cause maximum problems for his successor” who would unavoidably have to sack most of them upon taking office.

A senior source said “Those appointments were the most appalling thing I have seen in politics,” adding “It was obviously a move to sabotage his successor’s first weeks in office.”

Another senior figure in the government said that “This is not an administration that is going to go quietly. There is a lot of anger about how this all happened,” said the source. “It is clear that much of it will now focus on Rishi. It is all very Trumpian.”

Charles Walker, the former vice-chairman of the 1922 committee, told the Observer that there was so much bad blood and all pleas for restraint were futile.

While this was going on, Johnson's supporters cautioned the party that it would regret getting rid of him and said that the contenders for his job were unable to duplicate his achievements. They claim that Sunak, in particular, is subject to "loyalty and propriety" inquiries and charge that he has been planning his leadership runs for months while officially pledging his loyalty.

In the midst of the succession crisis, new allegations surfaced on Saturday night that Johnson had pushed for a position for a young lady who says she had a sexual encounter with him while he was mayor of London.

Read more: Zelensky sad over Johnson's resignation

The Sunday Times said that the appointment, then, was blocked by Kit Malthouse, who was then a senior figure in City Hall and is now a cabinet minister. Malthouse argued that Johnson and the young lady were inappropriately close in terms of a relationship.

The allegations come after information surfaced last month that Johnson had sought to have his wife, Carrie, serve as his chief of staff while he was the foreign secretary. At the time, the two were having an affair. Additionally, he is charged with aiding American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri obtain access to government-funded business trips following their liaison in 2011.

I want to thank you, the British public, for the immense privilege of serving you as Prime Minister.

I want you to know that from now until my successor is in place, your interests will be served and the government of the country will be carried on.https://t.co/T4kJoxmZ8q pic.twitter.com/Hn4rDUV319

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 7, 2022

Along with Sunak, the attorney general Suella Braverman, former minister Kemi Badenoch, and the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat, these individuals entered the leadership race on Saturday night. They were joined by foreign secretary Liz Truss, the transport secretary Grant Shapps, and the new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi.

Zahawi vowed to cut taxes "for individuals, families, and business," while Shapps stated he would concentrate on the rising cost of living problem.

Additionally, the chancellor emphasized his "culture war" credentials by pledging to "concentrate on letting children be children, shielding them from detrimental and inappropriate nonsense being foisted on them by radical campaigners."

When Truss formally begins her candidacy this week, she's anticipated to promise to roll back the government's most recent national insurance increase.

Sunak is the favorite among individuals who supported the Conservatives in the last general election, according to the most recent Opinium survey conducted for the Observer. 55.4 percent of respondents thought he would make a good prime minister. Javid finished second with 50.5 percent.

When it comes to Johnson supporters, “People are trying to work this out at the moment, the field is muddied by so many unrealistic candidates,” adding that “There is a strong concern in what you might call the pro-Boris camp of certain candidates – some, perfectly reasonably, have never bought into what Boris was trying to do,” said one of them. 

They then further added that “there are those who have been running leadership campaigns from within the cabinet for some time, which is an act of the highest disloyalty. If you’re that far gone in terms of your support to the prime minister, you ought to have resigned months ago. I think that raises a fundamental question of loyalty and, indeed, of propriety.”

Before choosing a candidate to support, Johnson supporters will consider any prospective campaigns by the home secretary, Priti Patel, as well as Truss and Zahawi. Another Johnson supporter claimed that individuals who had contributed to overthrowing Johnson were already beginning to have "buyer's remorse."

Read more: Johnson's resignation could trigger ripple effect in EU govs: Expert