The Conservative party must make the case for a “low tax global Britain” and fight the next election on a pledge to cut taxes, former prime minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday evening, in what as been viewed has a fresh challenge to Rishi Sunak.
Speaking at the Carlton Club, a members-only club frequented by Conservative politicians, the former PM also urged Sunak to press ahead with a new law to override the Northern Ireland Protocol and resolve the Brexit impasse in Northern Ireland.
Mr Johnson was officially at the Carlton Club to unveil a portrait of himself.
The new comments will be seen as applying further pressure of Sunak, with supporters describing the intervention as Johnson’s most politically-charged since leaving office.
Addressing club members on Tuesday night, Mr Johnson told his party that it must “never give in, keep fighting, keep backing the Government – keep making the case for levelling up, for opportunities and for a dynamic low tax global Britain. That is how we will win again”.
Alongside forecasts that inflation “will come dramatically”, “China will get through Covid” and “Putin will lose in Ukraine”, Mr Johnson said that “the Conservative Party will recover”.
He continued: “Because when the moment of real electoral decision approaches – and it will – people will realise that there is only one party that yearns to reduce the burden of tax.
“There is only one party that really believes in extending the joys of home ownership. There is only one party with the guts to stand up to the Union barons.”
Moving to Brexit, Mr Johnson said there was “only one party, the Conservative Party, that believes in the union with Northern Ireland and will pass the necessary laws to protect the economic integrity of the UK.”
He added there was “only one party that will dare to do what is necessary to disrupt the evil gangs that send people across the channel in unseaworthy vessels – by sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda.
“And there is only one party that really believes in Brexit – and its potential to transform the economy of this country
“And only one party that will continue to make use of Brexit freedoms from financial services to genetic engineering.”
He said that “when people realise this – I think the political dynamic is going to change. There is no desire to vote for Keir Starmer, for Sir Crasheroonie Snoozefest.”
Mr Johnson’s latest intervention comes as fresh allegations emerge that the former PM lied to MPs about Partygate.
A source told ITV that the former prime minister joked he was at the “most unsocially distanced party in the UK” at a leaving do held during the Covid pandemic
ITV said that when it put the quote to the former prime minister, who was pressured by his party into announcing his departure from Downing Street in the summer, the former Conservative leader “did not deny saying it”. The claim is part of a number of new allegations made in an ITV podcast, “Partygate: The Inside Story”.
