Book Reveals Boris Johnson’s Private Criticism of Theresa May and Tory Colleagues

Boris Johnson compared Theresa May to a “giant Yucca tree under whose shade everything dies,” according to his former adviser Sir Conor Burns. ” after May called a snap general election in 2017. The accounts appear in Sir Anthony Seldon’s book ‘The Brexit Effect,’ which The Independent is serialising.

Sir Conor served as parliamentary private secretary to Johnson when Johnson was foreign secretary. He writes that May’s appointment of Johnson to that post after the 2017 election was intended to “shaft” him. “It was seen as a plum job,” Sir Conor states.

Johnson privately predicted that May’s decision to call an early election would lead to “disaster,” Sir Conor reports. He describes May as the “political ‘Peter Principle’ – promoted to her level of incompetence,” a reference to the 1969 Laurence Peter book on employees rising beyond their competence.

Sir Conor says Johnson relied on Dominic Cummings because he “lacked the gumption” to force through Brexit without him.

Johnson would not have prorogued parliament or withdrawn the whip from so many MPs without Cummings, according to Sir Conor. The relationship later “became cancerous,” he adds. ” The rival camps of Johnson and Michael Gove “hated each other,” Sir Conor states.

Sir Bernard Jenkin led the “knucklehead Brexiteers” and was a “supreme bore” who “resented Johnson as a Johnny-come-lately,” according to Sir Conor. ” text, Sir Conor recounts. Johnson was “very close to sacking” Liz Truss, who was “constantly on manoeuvres,” he adds.

When Truss arrived uninvited to offer support, “you can start measuring curtains in No. 10,” Sir Conor writes.