Boris Johnson sought to defuse the controversy sparked by his declaration that he wanted to stay in office until the 2030s, saying he meant he was focused on his reform agenda.
After two huge defeats in the by-elections revived Conservative talks that Johnson was forced to step down within weeks or months, the prime minister’s comment on the already planned third term prompted a former cabinet minister to say he was “completely misled “.
Johnson tried to clarify his remark when he spoke to reporters at the G-7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, on Sunday morning. But as his long journey abroad continues – he was in Rwanda for the British Community summit and will travel to Spain for the NATO summit when the G7 is over – at home some Tory MPs are increasingly focusing on what they can do to take it down.
Before leaving Rwanda, Johnson was asked if he intended to serve a second full term if he won the election, which took him to 2028 or 2029. Johnson replied: “I am currently actively thinking about a third term and you know what could happen then. But I’ll review it when I get to it. “
Asked what he meant by leaving after a third term, Johnson said it would mean staying in office “until the mid-2030s.”
Initially, number 10 suggested that Johnson may have been joking, but this morning the prime minister said he was focusing on the long-term challenges facing the country.
“What I’m saying is that this is a government that deals with providing people to this country, and we have a huge job to do,” he told G7 reporters.
“In the near future, we need to get people to go through the current global inflationary pressures, the post-Covid inflationary pressures that Ukraine has exacerbated, the jumps in energy prices that we have.
“But at the same time, we have a massive program of reforms and improvements, a plan for a stronger economy to reform our energy markets, housing markets, the way our transport networks work, our public sector – we must” reduce government spending. “
Johnson said his golden rule is to “focus on what we do.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis took a similar line when asked to defend Johnson’s third-term comment in interviews Sunday morning. He told Sky News: “To see that kind of enthusiasm – and let’s be honest, someone who enjoys the job, wants and has plans for the country – to have that ability to look ahead, I think, is a good thing.
“We are often criticized in politics when we look at the short term, only the next day, the next election, the next vote. In fact, we have someone like the prime minister who wants to look long-term. “
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Other Tories were less generous. A former supporter of the prime minister, a former cabinet minister, told the Observer that Johnson’s remarks were “completely misleading”, while a senior Red Wall MP said Johnson was “showing growing signs of a bunker mentality and that he never it doesn’t end well. “
Prime ministers often deviate from questions about how long they intend to stay in office because setting an early end date tends to undermine authority, while the promise of “going on and on” – as Margaret Thatcher once did – only infuriates colleagues who expect transmission.
Johnson’s remarks sounded particularly arrogant, because earlier this month, 41% of Conservative MPs voted against him in a vote of confidence. Activists also cite Johnson’s unpopularity among voters as a major factor in the Tories’ loss in the two midterm elections, especially in Tiverton and Honiton, where the Liberal Democrats set a record for the size of the majority canceled in by-elections (24,239).
Opponents of Johnson plan to use the upcoming 1922 Conservative Committee elections to continue his efforts to oust him. If a majority of MPs against Johnson are elected to the executive branch, they could remove the current rule, preventing a new no-confidence vote before June 2023.
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