Saturday 25 June 2022 10:54 PM Boris warns Tory rebels he will seek third term as PM and vows to lead his ... trends now
Boris Johnson last night goaded his Tory critics by vowing to seek a third term as Prime Minister and lead his party into the mid-2030s.
As plotting by Ministers, MPs and party donors intensified in the wake of the PM’s drubbing in two by-elections on Thursday, Mr Johnson said he was ‘thinking actively’ about a third term in office – potentially taking him past Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years in Downing Street.
His defiance came as one of the candidates to succeed him told The Mail on Sunday that they expected the PM to face a challenge ‘within weeks or even days’.
Mr Johnson insisted to reporters at a Commonwealth summit in Kigali, Rwanda, that questions of his leadership were ‘settled’ after he won a vote of confidence earlier this month, and pledged he would not undergo any ‘psychological transformation’ in order to win over unsupportive MPs.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Dinner, hosted by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, at the Marriott Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda
Mr Johnson’s remarks came as:
Rebel MPs stepped up the efforts, revealed in last week’s MoS, to flood the backbench 1922 executive committee with allies and then force another confidence vote; A Cabinet minister warned that they and their colleagues were likely to move against Mr Johnson if the Commons Privileges Committee concluded that he had misled Parliament over breaches of lockdown rules in No 10; Supporters of the PM accused Oliver Dowden, who resigned as Party Chairman in the wake of Thursday’s results, of being part of a plot by former Prime Minister David Cameron to destabilise Mr Johnson. Mr Dowden and Mr Cameron were spotted together last month at 5 Hertford Street, a private members’ club long associated with Tory plotting; Mr Johnson planned a series of Chequers ‘barbecues and drinks’ for MPs to shore up support; Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer faced his own leadership struggles as his split with his deputy leader Angela Rayner widened over her support for striking train drivers.Sir Keir could also find himself being hit with a fine by Durham police for his ‘Beergate’ gathering in late April 2021 which he has said would lead to his resignation: The Mail on Sunday has established through a Freedom of Information request that, contrary to earlier claims, the force does issue retrospective fines – and for smaller gatherings than the one attended by the Labour leader.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer meets with new Wakefield MP Simon Lightwood (right), as the party reclaimed the West Yorkshire seat from the Conservatives in the Wakefield by-election
The Prime Minister’s pledge to carry on into the next decade will infuriate those MPs scheming to remove him from office after he lost both Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton to Labour and the
