Boris Johnson thought about sending Rishi Sunak foul-mouthed video over resignation ‘betrayal’, former aide claims
Boris Johnson considered sending Rishi Sunak a foul-mouthed video after he resigned and triggered his downfall, the former PM’s former director of communications has claimed.
Guto Harri, who advised Mr Johnson from February to September last year, said Mr Johnson believed Mr Sunak’s decision to resign last summer was “the great betrayal of all time”, and Mr Johnson thought about sending him a video calling him a “c***”.
Sources close to the former prime minister dismissed the claims as “simply inaccurate” when approached by Sky News.
Mr Johnson’s downfall was triggered when Sajid Javid resigned as health secretary and Rishi Sunak as chancellor in the wake of the former prime minister’s handling of the Chris Pincher affair.
At the time, Mr Sunak said he was quitting because “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously.”
Their resignations prompted a swathe of other colleagues to quit, forcing Mr Johnson to resign.
Mr Harri – who has made a series of controversial claims on his new podcast for Global, Unprecedented – recounted Mr Johnson’s reaction to Mr Sunak’s resignation.
He said: “Rishi walked out. Didn’t even tell Boris he was going to go. Basically, he went public with a resignation. And a few days later, Boris found a little video on the internet that expressed what he wanted to basically say to Rishi.
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Sky’s Beth Rigby looks back on the day when Boris Johnson was in the spotlight over partygate.
“He didn’t send it, but he sent it to me and said, ‘thinking of sending this to Rishi’.”
Mr Harri claimed the video contained the words: “You’re a c***.”
“So, there you have it,” he continued. “If you really want to know how Boris Johnson felt about Rishi Sunak in the immediate aftermath of his toppling, and the great betrayal of all time as he sees it, there you have it.”
Mr Johnson has been thrust back into the limelight in recent months amid a parliamentary investigation into whether he lied to MPs about parties in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic.
The privileges committee, which is investigating whether Mr Johnson misled MPs about partygate, is expected to publish its findings later this month.
Former Downing Street director of communication Guto Harri
The former PM has been critical of Sue Gray, the civil servant who led the initial probe into whether parties took place in Number 10 during the pandemic, after it emerged that she was set to join the Labour Party as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
Mr Harri also claimed that Mr Johnson believed Ms Gray was planning an “orgy of pain, abuse and humiliation”.
“Something was happening to Boris that he’d never had to deal with before,” he said. “He was in real trouble. Big trouble. Conservative MPs in his words had become psychotic.
“The police were trawling all over partygate and an inquiry led by an – until then, at least – obscure civil servant called Sue Gray – now a household name of course and a hero of the left – was planning what he described then as an orgy of pain, abuse and humiliation.”
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Cabinet office publishes its review into how Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who investigated partygate, came to be appointed by the Labour party
Last week Mr Harri hit the headlines when he claimed that Mr Johnson had a “bit of a showdown” with King Charles over the government’s controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Read more:
Boris Johnson called Sue Gray ‘psycho’ and was ‘suspicious’ of partygate probe bias, ex-adviser claims
What did we learn from three-hour grilling of Boris Johnson?
He alleged that Mr Johnson confronted the King – “essentially squaring up” to him – after the King described the Rwanda asylum policy as “appalling”.
“They did have a bit of a showdown, but for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was A, extremely popular government policy, B, very central government policy and C, on the eve of the two of them going to the very place at the heart of the story, Rwanda,” Mr Harri said.
“So it wasn’t a fight. Obviously they didn’t square up to get in the ring. But Boris, rightly, challenged the unelected royal at the time.”
Mr Harri also suggested that Mr Sunak would have been reshuffled out of his role as chancellor had Mr Johnson stayed in office due to the “fundamental disagreement of policy between the two of them”.
Sources close to Mr Johnson said: “These accounts are simply inaccurate. Boris Johnson has had nothing to do with this podcast, had no knowledge of it and deplores any attempt to report such conversations in public.”
US president-elect Donald Trump has suggested Israel and Hamas could agree a Gaza ceasefire by the end of the week.
Talks between Israeli and Hamas representatives resumed in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday, after US President Joe Biden indicated a deal to stop the fighting was “on the brink” on Monday.
A draft agreement has been sent to both sides. It includes provisions for the release of hostages and a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Qatar says Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” yet to a ceasefire deal.
Two Hamas officials said the group has accepted the draft agreement, with Israel still considering the deal.
An Israeli official said a deal is close but “we are not there” yet.
More than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Read more:
What’s in the proposed deal?
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on beachfront cafe in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Biden hails possibility of agreement
President Biden said it would include a hostage release deal and a “surge” of aid to Palestinians, in his final foreign policy speech as president.
“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said.
“The deal would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.”
Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting.
Analysis:
Deal might be close, but there are many unanswered questions
Pic: Reuters
Trump: ‘We’re very close’
President-elect Donald Trump has also discussed a possible peace deal during a phone interview with the Newsmax channel.
“We’re very close to getting it done and they have to get it done,” he said.
“If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble, like they have never seen before.
“And they will get it done. And I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place, it has to take place.”
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Pic: AP
Israeli official: Former Hamas leader held up deal
Speaking on Tuesday as negotiations resumed in Qatar, an anonymous Israeli official said that an agreement was “close, but we are not there”.
They accused Hamas of previously “dictating, not negotiating” but said this has changed in the last few weeks.
“Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle for a deal,” they added.
Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks, led Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor but was himself killed in October last year.
Under Sinwar, the Israeli official claimed, Hamas was “not in a rush” to bring a hostage deal but this has changed since his death and since the IDF “started to dismantle the Shia axis”.
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Biden: ‘Never, never, never, ever give up’
Iran ‘weaker than it’s been in decades’
Yesterday, President Biden also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024.
“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” the president said.
Mr Biden claimed America’s adversaries were weaker than when he took office four years ago and that the US was “winning the worldwide competition”.
“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are
weaker,” he said.
“We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”
The US president is expected to give a farewell address on Wednesday.
A draft ceasefire deal on the table between Israel and Hamas would see 33 hostages set free and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from parts of Gaza.
President Joe Biden said an agreement to stop the fighting was “on the brink” and high level negotiations between the two sides resumed in Qatar on Tuesday.
The deal would see a number of things happen in a first stage, with negotiations for the second stage beginning in the third week of the ceasefire.
It would also allow a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of war.
Details of what the draft proposal entails have been emerging on Tuesday, reported by Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages hold photos of their loved ones during a protest on 8 January. Pic: AP
Hostages to be returned
In the first stage of the potential ceasefire, 33 hostages would be set free.
These include women (including female soldiers), children, men over the age of 50, wounded and sick.
Israel believes most of these hostages are alive but there has not been any official confirmation from Hamas.
In return for the release of the hostages, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
People serving long sentences for deadly attacks would be included in this but Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack would not be released.
An arrangement to prevent Palestinian “terrorists” from going back to the West Bank would be included in the deal, an anonymous Israeli official said.
Read more:
A timeline of events since the 7 October attacks
The hostages who still haven’t returned home
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
The agreement also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, with IDF troops remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.
Security arrangements would be implemented at the Philadelphi corridor – a narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Egypt and Gaza – with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would start to work gradually to allow the crossing of people who are sick and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza for treatment.
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to return to their homes, with a mechanism introduced to ensure no weapons are moved there.
“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all our hostages are back home,” the Israeli official said.
What will happen to Gaza in the future?
There is less detail about the future of Gaza – from how it will be governed, to any guarantees that this agreement will bring a permanent end to the war.
“The only thing that can answer for now is that we are ready for a ceasefire,” the Israeli official said.
“This is a long ceasefire and the deal that is being discussed right now is for a long one. There is a big price for releasing the hostages and we are ready to pay this price.”
The international community has said Gaza must be run by Palestinians, but there has not been a consensus about how this should be done – and the draft ceasefire agreement does not seem to address this either.
In the past, Israel has said it will not end the war leaving Hamas in power. It also previously rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governing powers in the West Bank, from taking over the administration of Gaza.
Since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has also said it would retain security control over the territory after the fighting ends.
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