Boris Johnson refuses to answer questions about police visit
The frontrunner in the race to be UK prime minister said the
audience wanted to hear about his policies.
By THIBAULT
LARGER AND JAMES RANDERSON 6/22/19,
7:36 PM CET Updated 6/22/19, 7:40 PM CET
Conservative MP Boris Johnson gestures as he answers questions
from journalist Iain Dale as he takes part in a Conservative Party leadership
hustings event in Birmingham, central England on June 22, 2019 | Oli Scarff/AFP
via Getty Images
Boris Johnson refused multiple times to answer questions at
a Tory leadership hustings about why the police were called to his girlfriend's
house in the early hours of Friday morning following a domestic disturbance.
The topic dominated the first five minutes of the hustings
in Birmingham which involved both of the final two candidates — Johnson and
Jeremy Hunt — in the contest to be leader of the Conservative party and the
next prime minister of the United Kingdom. It was the first of 16 regional
hustings.
The Guardian reported on Friday that the police were called
to the house of Carrie Symonds, Johnson’s girlfriend, in South London, shortly
after midnight on Friday morning after reports from a neighbor of a domestic
dispute between the couple.
Asked by host Iain Dale, a LBC radio presenter and himself a
former Tory parliamentary candidate, why the police were called, Johnson said:
"I don't think they want to hear about that kind of thing, unless I am
wrong. I think what they want to hear is what my plans are for the country and
our party."
Dale persisted, asking, “if the police are called to your
home, it makes it everyone’s business. You are running for the office of not
just leader of the Conservative party but prime minister. Therefore a lot of
people who do admire your politics do call into question your character and I
do think it is incumbent on you to answer that question.”
Conservative MP Boris Johnson speaks to the audience as he
takes part in a Conservative Party leadership hustings event in Birmingham,
central England on June 22, 2019 | Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images
Johnson responded: "People are entitled to ask about me
and my determination, my character and what I want to do for the country."
But the former foreign secretary then embarked on a tangent about his achievements
as London mayor and the redesign of London's iconic Routemaster bus.
At one point, the audience barracked the presenter for his
attempts to get an answer from Johnson, who has refused almost all interviews
and faced little media scrutiny during the campaign. In response, Johnson held
up his arms and said, "don't boo the great man."
After multiple attempts Dale asked whether he would not get
"any comment at all about what happened last night," to which Johnson
replied: "I think it's pretty obvious from the foregoing."
The exchange set a bad-tempered tone for the back and forth
between the two and then for a series of questions selected by Dale from the
audience of Tory members. At one point, Johnson complained of "hostile
bowling" from the members' questions and asked how long the session had
left to run.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt speaks to the
audience as he takes part in a Conservative Party leadership hustings event in
Birmingham, central England on June 22, 2019 | Oli Scarf/AFP via Getty Images
One questioner asked why he had said "f**k
business" last year at a dinner over objections from firms to the
government's plans for Brexit. Johnson said he "bitterly" resented
the way the "stray remark" to the Belgian ambassador had been used to
cast doubt on what he called his "pretty extraordinary record of sticking
up for business."
"I was referring to very powerful lobby groups that
wanted to have a particular type of exit from the European Union — or non-exit
from the European Union — that would not actually achieve the result that we
want," he added. This is presumably a reference to the Confederation of
British Industry that represents 190,000 businesses and has warned the
government consistently about the economic danger posed by a no-deal scenario.
On Brexit, he repeated his assertion that "we have to
come out by October 31." And he said he would use the U.K.'s financial
leverage in the negotiations. "I think as the UK’s negotiators we should
retain some creative ambiguity [on the question of money]," he said.
Asked what that would say about the country, if it did not
live up to its financial obligations, Johnson said: "I think what it says
is, this is a country that is determined to conduct itself in the tradition of
EU negotiations."
In his half of the proceedings, Hunt agreed that it was
essential to execute Brexit and promised not to call a general election until
he had. "We are in a very serious situation. Get this wrong and there will
be no Conservative government, maybe no Conservative party," he said.
And he aimed some jibes at his opponent. "If we send
the wrong person [to Brussels] catastrophe awaits," he said. "If we
send the wrong person there’s going to be no negotiation, no trust, no deal.
And if parliament stops that, maybe no Brexit."
Hunt used a reference to opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to
aim another shot at Johnson. "Faced with a hard-left populist we could
choose our own populist or we could choose our own Jeremy."
This article is part of POLITICO’s premium Brexit service
for professionals: Brexit Pro. To test our our expert policy coverage of the
implications and next steps per industry, email pro@politico.eu for a
complimentary trial.
Boris Johnson under fire over row with partner as top Tories
raise fears
Leadership campaign falters as he refuses to respond to
questions at hustings about late-night argument with Carrie Symonds
Video reveals Steve Bannon links to Boris Johnson
Michael Savage, Toby Helm and Simon Murphy
Sat 22 Jun 2019 21.00 BST Last modified on Sun 23 Jun 2019
00.04 BST
Boris Johnson was struggling to keep his campaign to become
prime minister on course on Saturday night as he repeatedly refused to explain
why police had been called to his home after a loud, late-night altercation
with his partner.
Senior Tories were quick to raise fresh concerns over the
former foreign secretary’s suitablity for No 10 as the favourite to succeed
Theresa May stonewalled question after question about the incident at the first
hustings of the leadership contest in front of party members.
Asked about the story, revealed on Friday evening by the
Guardian, Johnson told the Birmingham audience that people did not “want to
hear about that kind of thing”. When pressed on whether understanding his
character was important in the battle to replace Theresa May, Johnson insisted
he would only talk about his plans “for the country and our party”.
Radio presenter Iain Dale, a former Tory candidate who
hosted the hustings, accused Johnson of “completely avoiding” questions about
the argument with Carrie Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press, at
their home in the early hours of Friday morning. “People are entitled to ask
about me and my determination, my character and what I want to do for the
country,” Johnson said. “Let me just tell you that when I make a promise in
politics, about what I’m going to do, I keep that promise and I deliver.”
The police confirmed they were called to the couple’s south
London flat after an argument was heard by neighbours. They said they heard
slamming and banging, adding that at one point Symonds could be heard telling
Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
Foreign office minister Alan Duncan, who worked under
Johnson said his former boss now had a “big question mark over his head” adding
that he had shown a “lack of discipline” throughout his career.
A poll conducted yesterday showed support for Johnson had
fallen sharply following the incident. His eight-point lead for the Tory crown
earlier in the week had fallen to three points behind rival Jeremy Hunt by
yesterday morning. Among Tory voters, when asked who would make the best prime
minister, Johnson’s lead had slumped from 27% to 11% in the same period,
according to Survation, who carried out the polls for the Mail on Sunday.
Last night the neighbour who contacted the police, Tom Penn,
30, a playwright, issued a statement saying he wanted to put the record
straight on his reasons for recording the row and calling 999.
Penn said he only acted as a last resort and that he was
speaking out as he was concerned by the “bizarre and fictitious allegations”
made about him and his wife, Eve Leigh, 34, a fellow playwright.
Penn said: “In the early hours of Friday morning, I answered
a phone call from a take-away food delivery driver. At the same time, I heard
what sounded like shouting coming from the street. I went downstairs, on the
phone to the driver, and collected my food. On the way back into my flat, it
became clear that the shouting was coming from a neighbour’s flat. It was loud
enough and angry enough that I felt frightened and concerned for the welfare of
those involved, so I went inside my own home, closed the door, and pressed
record on the voice memos app on my phone.
“After a loud scream and banging, followed by silence, I ran
upstairs, and with my wife agreed we should check on our neighbours. I knocked
three times at their front door, but there was no response. I went back
upstairs into my flat, and we agreed that we should call the police.”
Another neighbour, a nursery teacher who lives with her
husband and four-year-old son in the top flat next door, told the Times that
she could hear “shouting and screaming”.
Fatimah, 32, said: “It was really loud, loud enough to make
me turn down the TV and see what was going on. I could hear shouting and
screaming from a lady, she sounded really angry. There was a man’s voice too,
but he was much calmer and he was telling her to calm down but she was still
chucking things about,” she said. “It went on for about 10 minutes. I’ve never
heard anything like it. I was considering calling the police but then a
[police] van and car came.”
The incident has enouraged those backing Jeremy Hunt,
Johnson’s opponent for PM. With Johnson having positioned himself as the
candidate in favour of a hard Brexit, Hunt used the hustings to harden his
position on no-deal saying he would “100%” leave the EU at the end of October
with no deal if he believed the EU was not willing to compromise.
Today Johnson is expected to come under further pressure
over his Brexit policy when Liam Fox, the international trade secretary will
call into doubt his claim that the UK would be not be hit automatically by
tariffs on EU exports in the event of a no-deal outcome.
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