Zahawi backs ‘Boris 2.0’ weeks after telling him to ‘go now’ – who else has changed their mind?
Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has said he is backing Boris Johnson to return as prime minister despite having previously called for him to resign in the summer.
“I’m backing Boris. He got the big calls right, whether it was ordering more vaccines ahead of more waves of Covid, arming Ukraine early against the advice of some, or stepping down for the sake of unity,” Mr Zahawi tweeted. “But now, Britain needs him back. We need to unite to deliver on our manifesto.”
He added: “When I was chancellor, I saw a preview of what Boris 2.0 would look like. He was contrite & honest about his mistakes. He’d learned from those mistakes how he could run No10 & the country better. With a unified team behind him, he is the one to lead us to victory & prosperity.”
But less than two days after Mr Johnson made Mr Zahawi his chancellor, he called on the prime minister to resign, telling him: “Prime Minister: this is not sustainable and it will only get worse: for you, for the Conservative party and most importantly of all the country. You must do the right thing and go now.”
Mr Zahawi joins a list of MPs who appear to have changed their mind on Mr Johnson since his resignation.
Sunak leads leadership race as Johnson returns to UK – politics latest
Priti Patel, the former home secretary, has said she will back him, but in July Ms Patel told Mr Johnson he had lost the support of the Tory party and should not go on.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, who has tweeted his support for Mr Johnson, is also reported to have been present at the meeting.
Simon Clarke, the levelling up secretary, also declared he wants Mr Johnson to replace Ms Truss, despite previously saying his resignation as prime minister was the “right decision”.
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, formally announced her bid on Friday afternoon.
Amanda Milling, MP for Cannock Chase, also tweeted her support for Mr Johnson, saying he has a “proven track record of delivery for the British people”. But when he resigned Ms Milling said it was the right move “as the damage to our party and country was getting too much”.
Similarly, Shaun Bailey, MP for West Bromwich West, tweeted it was “time to #BringBackBoris”, but had said he could no longer support him when he was prime minister and called for “fresh leadership”.
Anthony Higginbotham has also come out for Mr Johnson, but had previously urged him to resign, saying: “Loyalty matters. But as the Member of Parliament for Burnley my first loyalty is, and always will be, to the public. It’s for that reason that I can no longer in good conscience continue supporting the current leader of my party.”
John Whittingdale, MP for Maldon, who has indicated he would back Mr Johnson, previously said there was “absolutely no alternative” to him resigning as prime minister and said it was clear he “simply couldn’t continue”.
The expected timeline of events in electing a new PM
Jonathan Gullis, who resigned his role as parliamentary private secretary to the Northern Ireland secretary, has also indicated he will support Mr Johnson. The MP for Stoke-on-Trent North reportedly said he had lots of people from across his constituency telling him to “bring back Boris”.
Karl McCartney, the MP for Lincoln, backed Mr Johnson’s return but before his resignation said: “It has become clear to the prime minister, Boris Johnson MP, that he no longer has the confidence of a growing number of his colleagues in the Conservative Parliamentary Party.
“Therefore, the time has come for the prime minister to take the decision to resign and allow the Conservative Party the opportunity to select and elect a new leader.”
Lee Anderson has also performed somewhat of an about-turn by saying he would back Mr Johnson in the leadership race. The MP for Ashfield previously withdrew his support for the prime minister and said “integrity should always come first and sadly this has not been the case over the past few days”.
Dr Caroline Johnson, MP for Sleaford, previously resigned as Tory party vice chair, saying Mr Johnson’s “errors of judgement and domestic actions” had “squandered the goodwill of the party”. At the time she said he would “only damage our party and therefore our country” if he stayed on as prime minister, but she has since said she is backing Mr Johnson’s return.
Though he is yet to formally declare he will run, Mr Johnson has the public support of several cabinet ministers and about 60 MPs.
Mr Johnson returned to the UK on Saturday morning from the Dominican Republic, where he was said to be “taking soundings” about a potential return to No 10 after Ms Truss’s dramatic resignation on Thursday.
He is likely to be opposed by his former chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose resignation was key in forcing Mr Johnson’s departure from Downing Street in the summer.
On Monday Tory MPs will vote on which two candidates should be put forward to the party membership. Candidates have until 2pm to secure 100 nominations.
The membership will then vote on who should become leader of the party and the prime minister, with the result announced on Friday.
World
Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
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Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
World
‘The future is in our hands’ scientists say, as 2024 becomes first year to pass 1.5C global warming threshold
Last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said.
Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.
The record heat has not only has real-world implications, as it contributed to deadly flooding in Spain and vicious drought in places like Zambia in southern Africa.
It is also highly symbolic.
Countries agreed in the landmark Paris Agreement to limit warming ideally to 1.5C, because after that the impacts would be much more dangerous.
The news arrives as California battles “hell on earth” wildfires, suspected to have been exacerbated by climate change.
And it comes as experts warn support for the Paris goals is “more fragile than ever” – with Donald Trump and the Argentinian president poised to row back on climate action.
What caused 2024 record heat – and is it here to stay?
Friends of the Earth called today’s findings from both the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change service and the Met Office “deeply disturbing”.
The “primary driver” of heat in the last two years was climate change from human activity, but the temporary El Nino weather phenomenon also contributed, they said.
The breach in 2024 does not mean the world has forever passed 1.5C of warming – as that would only be declared after several years of doing so, and warming may slightly ease this year as El Nino has faded.
But the world is “teetering on the edge” of doing so, Copernicus said.
Prof Piers Forster, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, called it a “foretaste of life at 1.5C”.
Dr Gabriel Pollen, Zambia’s national coordinator for disasters, said “no area of life and the economy is untouched” by the country’s worst drought in more than 100 years.
Six million people face starvation, critical hydropower has plummeted, blackouts are frequent, industry is “decimated”, and growth has halved, he said.
Paris goal ‘not obsolete’
Scientists were at pains to point out it is not too late to curb worse climate change, urging leaders to maintain and step up climate action.
Professor Forster said temporarily breaching 1.5C “does not mean the goal is obsolete”, but that we should “double down” on slashing greenhouse gas emissions and on adapting to a hotter world.
The Met Office said “every fraction of a degree” still makes a difference to the severity of extreme weather.
The California fires were whipped up by strong, dry winds and likely worsened by climate change. Pic: Reuters
Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo added: “The future is in our hands: swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate”.
Climate action is ‘economic opportunity’
Copernicus found that global temperatures in 2024 averaged 15.10°C, the hottest in records going back to 1850, making it 1.60°C above the pre-industrial level during 1850-1900.
The Met Office’s data found 2024 was 1.53C above pre-industrial levels.
The figures are global averages, which smooth out extremes from around the world into one number. That is why it still might have felt cold in some parts of the world last year.
Greenpeace campaigner Philip Evans said as “the world’s most powerful climate denier” Donald Trump returns to the White House, others must “take up the mantle of global climate leadership”.
The UK’s climate minister Kerry McCarthy said the UK has been working with other countries to cut global emissions, as well as greening the economy at home.
“Not only is this crucial for our planet, it is the economic opportunity of the 21st century… tackling the climate crisis while creating new jobs, delivering energy security and attracting new investment into the UK.”
World
Picture shows baby girl moments after birth on packed migrant dinghy heading for Canary Islands
Photographs have captured the moments after a baby girl was born on a packed migrant dinghy heading for the Canary Islands.
The small boat was carrying 60 people and had embarked from Tan-Tan – a Moroccan province 135 nautical miles (250km) away.
One image shows the baby lying on her mother’s lap as other passengers help the pair.
The boat’s passengers – a total of 60 people, including 14 women and four children – were rescued by a Spanish coastguard ship.
Coastguard captain Domingo Trujillo said: “The baby was crying, which indicated to us that it was alive and there were no problems, and we asked the woman’s permission to undress her and clean her.
“The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her fellow passengers. The only thing we did was to check the child, give her to her mother and wrap them up for the trip.”
Coastguards rescued all 60 people aboard the boat. Pic: Salvmento Maritimo/Reuters
The mother and baby were taken for medical checks and treated with antibiotics, medical authorities said.
Dr Maria Sabalich, an emergency coordinator of the Molina Orosa University Hospital in Lanzarote, said: “They are still in the hospital, but they are doing well.”
When they are discharged from hospital, the pair will be moved to a humanitarian centre for migrants, a government official said.
They will then most likely be relocated to a reception centre for mothers and children on another of the Canary Islands, they added.
Thousands of migrants board boats attempting to make the perilous journey from the African coast to the Spanish Canaries each year.
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In 2024, a total of 9,757 people died on the route, according to Spanish migration charity Walking Borders.
Mr Trujillo said: “Almost every night we leave at dawn and arrive back late.
“This case is very positive, because it was with a newborn, but in all the services we do, even if we are tired, we know we are helping people in distress.”
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