The argument that
Boris Johnson is genuinely trying to strike a deal with the EU is “absurd”, according to the former Conservative minister,
Ken Clarke, who has told Newsnight:
He’s obviously not trying to get a deal. I’m sure he’d prefer one if he thought he could get one past his right-wing supporters but he’s dug himself in. He assumes he’s going to get no deal because he can’t get the right wing of the Conservative party, many of them now stuck in his cabinet, to agree to it.
Referring to the state of the party, Clarke added:
It’s been taken over by a rather knockabout sort of character, who’s got this bizarre crash-it-through philosophy ... a cabinet which is the most right-wing cabinet any Conservative party has ever produced.
They’re not in control of events. The prime minister comes and talks total rubbish to us and is planning to hold a quick election and get out, blaming Parliament and
Europe for the shambles.
I have to decide whether to vote Conservative if
Boris Johnson is still the leader. That’s my next problem. I am a conservative, of course I am ...
but this leader, I don’t recognise this. It’s the Brexit party, rebadged.
