News

Boris Johnson quote about the Miliband's resurfaces after his own brother quits government

Boris Johnson quote about the Miliband's resurfaces after his own brother quits government

Today, Boris Johnson's own brother, Jo, has dramatically quit the government in an apparent protest over the current leadership of the Tory party and the country.

Johnson, who had recently returned to government after being appointed as the minister for universities and sciences but is now citing 'unresolvable tension' and being 'torn between loyalty and the national interest' as the reasons behind the decision.

As you can imagine, the prime minister is being mocked for his own brother being willing to leave his side, over his handling of Brexit, which he would have banked on happening.

One thing that wouldn't have anticipated would be a quote from 2013, where he practically said that this sort of thing would never happen in his family and was more of a 'left-wing thing.'

During a trip to Australia, when he was still the Mayor of London, Johnson spoke to The Australianabout his brother, who had just been appointed as the head of policy under David Cameron.

He also touched on a development which was happening in the Labour party at the time, where David Miliband was making his disappointment known about losing out to his brother, Ed, in the leadership race.

Johnson told the paper that he and his brother would never publicly scrutinise each other in such a manner, which he feels only 'socialist could do.'

Absolutely not. We don't do things that way, that's a very left-wing thing ... only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.

I mean, unbelievable. Only lefties can think like that ... they see people as discrete agents devoid of ties to society or to each other, and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people.

Given what has happened today, people can't help but share this quote all over again in full appreciation of the irony.

David Miliband eventually quit as a member of the shadow cabinet in October 2010 but did continue to serve as the MP for South Shields before leaving the role in 2013. Ed Miliband still serves as the MP for Doncaster North.

It remains to be seen what Jo Johnson will do next but he definitely won't be an MP anymore, which is likely to make family reunions very awkward affairs.

More: Jeremy Corbyn mocks Boris Johnson with an impression over the PM's handling of Brexit

The Conversation (0)
x