London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Sir Graham Brady has revealed that former PM Boris Johnson reportedly described Tory MPs criticising Dominic Cummings as ‘chicken s***.
Boris Johnson represented Tory backbenchers as “spineless chicken s***” for repeatedly criticising his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, the ex-head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs has argued. In a memoir regarding his time leading the powerful committee of backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady has laid bare the backroom exchanges behind the most turbulent decade in Tory history.
What does Graham Brady’s memoir reveal about Boris Johnson’s views?
In a telling quote about the former prime minister, Lord Brady has described how Mr Johnson was so irritated by the complaint of Mr Cummings’ infamous lockdown-breaking Barnard Castle trip that he dubbed Conservative MPs “spineless chicken s***”. Lord Brady claimed he stated: “I think backbench MPs have been contemptible! They have been spineless chicken s***. They need to develop some backbone.”
He stated when he told Mr Johnson “no sane person would move their wife and small child 30 miles to test his eyesight”, the then-PM replied: “He’s not sane.” Lord Brady contended that Mr Johnson frequently railed against anti-Covid standards, including criticising the “stupid f***ing two-metre rule” and “f***ing scientists”.
How did Boris Johnson’s comments fuel tensions within the Tory Party?
His book, Kingmaker, also demonstrates several attempts by Tory MPs to unseat sitting prime ministers, including Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid attempting to get rid of Theresa May during Brexit negotiations.
In the text, being serialised by The Daily Telegraph, Lord Brady also argued that during a series of scandals implicating MPs in 2014, David Cameron informed him: “The fact is, a lot of politics is just s***: it’s choosing the least bad option. Life would be easier if colleagues paid their expenses on time and didn’t snort coke and sodomise each other.”