
We live in interesting times both politically and diplomatically, and Boris Johnson is doing nothing to stop that.
The Foreign Secretary wrote a 4,000 word column in The Telegraph last Friday, outlining his vision of Brexit Britain.
The column was widely perceived as a leadership bid, albeit a fumbled one - not least because the head of the UK statistics Authority wrote to him publicly to disseminate some of the points he'd shared in his column.
Johnson, who holds one of the great offices of state, wrote:
Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week.
It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS.
He was publicly reminded this is untrue.
Sir David Norgrove writes to Foreign Secretary about use of '£350 million per week' figure https://t.co/yLI2SeW6FF— UK Statistics Authority (@UK Statistics Authority) 1505651447
He was also rebuked on Sunday by Home Secretary Amber Rudd on The Andrew Marr Show for 'backseat driving':
What I meant by that is I don’t want him managing the Brexit process.
What we’ve got is Theresa May managing that process.
She is driving the car – to continue the allegory – and I’m going to make sure as far as I am concerned and the rest of the cabinet are concerned that I’m going to help her do that.
She was asked if Boris had been backseat driving, and replied:
Yes, you could call it backseat driving.
The Sun then reported that Boris Johnson has been chatting about the ongoing Brexit negotiations negatively:
He was reported to have remarked to friends that “nobody ever beats the EU in a negotiation”.
Excl: Boris Johnson tells friends Brexit negotiations will fail and Theresa May will end up humiliated; https://t.co/eDTCsWy5pQ— Tom Newton Dunn (@Tom Newton Dunn) 1505768642
James O'Brien of LBC fame has a theory as to why he's so spectacularly undermining Theresa May's government and ongoing Brexit negotiations:
A take: Johnson wants to be as far away as possible when the wheels come off but resigning looks like desertion. He's gagging for the sack.— James Oh Brien (@James Oh Brien) 1505738337
And people seem to agree:
This now making more and more sense as a #boris strategy https://t.co/dE3qTSkiFS— emily m (@emily m) 1505771167
Hence; 'There is only one driver in this car... and it is Theresa', i.e. 'Not me at the helm! It's not my fault! Bl… https://t.co/Lfoeb4cb6s— Ceri Shields (@Ceri Shields) 1505821035
You can watch O'Brien's reasoning in the below video:
Boris wants to be as far away as possible when the wheels come off but resigning looks like desertion. He's gagging… https://t.co/0BYKtcbUvr— LBC (@LBC) 1505819466