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.
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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.”
World
Trump ‘thinking’ of going to Turkey for proposed Zelenskyy-Putin talks – as Russia silent on attending
Donald Trump has said he is “thinking” of going to Turkey on Thursday for potential peace talks between Ukraine and Russia’s leaders.
The US president, who previously claimed he could end the conflict in a day, has pushed for both sides to meet to bring the fighting to an end.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy called out Vladimir Putin to meet him on Thursday in Istanbul, but the Kremlin leader has yet to respond.
Speaking late on Monday, Mr Trump said: “I was thinking about flying over. I don’t know where I am going be on Thursday.
“I’ve got so many meetings.
“There’s a possibility there I guess, if I think things can happen.”
Mr Trump has headed to the Middle East this week on the first major foreign trip of his second administration, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
Mr Zelenskyy backed the prospect of Mr Trump attending the talks.
He said: “I supported President Trump with the idea of direct talks with Putin. I have openly expressed my readiness to meet.
“And of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Turkey.”
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Trump 100: Could Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump really meet?
Russia playing for time?
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, speaking on Monday, refused to say who, if anyone, would be travelling to Turkey from the Russian side.
“Overall, we’re determined to seriously look for ways to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement. That is all,” Mr Peskov said.
This came after the “coalition of the willing”, including Sir Keir Starmer, threatened Russia with fresh sanctions if it failed to comply with an unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting on Monday.
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Russia effectively rejected this proposal, instead calling for direct negotiations in Istanbul with Ukraine, at which Mr Zelenskyy challenged Mr Putin to make the trip himself.
Despite Russia’s claims towards wanting peace, Ukraine’s allies remained deeply sceptical about prospects for talks and whether Mr Putin was serious.
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European Union commission vice president Kaja Kallas said: “We want to see that Russia also wants peace.
“It takes two to want peace, it takes only one to want war, and we see that Russia clearly wants war.”
Meanwhile, Russia continued its nightly attacks on Ukraine.
Overnight into Tuesday, Ukraine said Moscow launched more than 100 drones.
It has been an extraordinary few hours which may well set the tone for a hugely consequential week ahead.
In the time that it took me to fly from London to Saudi Arabia, where President Donald Trump will begin a pivotal Middle East tour this week, a flurry of news has emerged on a range of key global challenges.
• On the Gaza war: The Trump administration has confirmed it’s holding talks with Hamas, which says it will release a hostage amid renewed hopes of a ceasefire.
• On the Ukraine war: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul – this announcement came minutes after Trump urged Zelenskyy to agree to the meeting.
• On the China-US trade war: The White House says the two countries have agreed to a “trade deal”. China said the talks, in Geneva, were “candid, in-depth and constructive”.
All three of these developments represent dramatic shifts in three separate challenges and hint at the remarkable influence the US president is having globally.
This sets the ground for what could be a truly consequential week for Trump’s presidency and his ability to effect change.
With his unique style, Trump is seeking to align numerous stars as he embarks on his first foreign diplomatic trip of his second presidency.
For days, it’s been unclear how the week ahead would unfold and which global challenge would be dominant.
The Saudi government has been instrumental as a broker in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and Qatar has been a mediator in the Gaza war.
Trump will visit both countries this week.
President Donald Trump on Air Force One earlier this month. File pic: AP
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Putin under pressure?
On Ukraine, Putin held a late-night news conference at the Kremlin on Saturday at which he made the surprise proposal of talks with Zelenskyy in Istanbul this Thursday.
But he rejected European and US calls for an immediate ceasefire.
The move was widely interpreted as a delay tactic.
Trump then issued a social media post urging Zelenskyy to accept the Russian proposal; effectively to call Putin’s bluff.
The American president wrote: “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly! I’m starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, who’s too busy celebrating the Victory of World War ll, which could not have been won (not even close!) without the United States of America. HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!”
Within minutes, Zelenskyy responded, agreeing to the talks.
“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The prospect of Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul on Thursday is remarkable.
It raises the possibility that Trump would want to be there too.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomes other world leaders to Kyiv. Pic: Presidential Office of Ukraine/dpa/AP Images
Israel’s war in Gaza
On Gaza, it’s been announced that US envoy Steve Witkoff will arrive in Israel on Monday to finalise details for the release of Idan Alexander, an Israeli-American hostage being held by Hamas.
The development comes after it was confirmed that Mr Witkoff has been holding discussions with Israel, Qatar and Egypt and, through them, with Hamas.
The talks focused on a possible Gaza hostage deal and larger peace discussions for a ceasefire.
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Gaza after around a year and a half of Israeli attacks. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa
Just days ago, Israel announced a new military plan to move back into Gaza.
When do candid talks become a trade deal?
Meanwhile, officials from the United States and China have been holding talks in Geneva, Switzerland, to resolve their trade war, which was instigated by Trump’s tariffs against China.
Late on Sunday evening, the White House released a statement claiming that a trade deal had been struck.
In a written statement, titled “U.S. Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva”, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks… We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive. We had the vice premier, two vice ministers, who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson, and myself. And I spoke to President Trump, as did Ambassador Jamieson, last night, and he is fully informed of what is going on. So, there will be a complete briefing tomorrow morning.”
Beijing Global Times newspaper quoted the Chinese vice premier as saying that the talks were candid, in-depth and constructive.
However, the Chinese fell short of calling it a trade deal.
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A Qatari gift
In a separate development, US media reports say that Qatar is preparing to gift Trump a Boeing 747 from its royal fleet, which he would use as a replacement for the existing and aging Air Force One plane.
The Qatari government says no deal has been finalised, but the development is already causing controversy because of the optics of accepting gifts of this value.
Of all the fronts in Donald Trump’s trade war, none was as dramatic and economically threatening as the sky-high tariffs he imposed on China.
There are a couple of reasons: first, because China is and was the single biggest importer of goods into the US and, second, because of the sheer height of the tariffs imposed by the White House in recent months.
In short, tariffs of over 100% were tantamount to a total embargo on goods coming from the United States’ main trading partner. That would have had enormous economic implications, not just for the US but every other country around the world (these are the world’s biggest and second-biggest economies, after all).
Trump latest: US and China slash tariffs in trade war de-escalation
So the truce announced on Monday by treasury secretary Scott Bessent is undoubtedly a very big deal indeed.
In short, China will still face an extra 30% tariffs (the 20% levies cast as punishment for China’s involvement in fentanyl imports and the 10% “floor” set on “Liberation Day”) on top of the residual 10% average from the Biden era.
But the rest of the extra tariffs will be paused for 90 days. China, in turn, has suspended its own retaliatory tariffs on the US.
The market has responded as you would probably have expected, with share prices leaping in relief. But that raises a question: is the trade war now over? Now that the two sides have blinked, can globalisation continue more or less as it had before?
That, it turns out, is a trickier and more complex question than it might first seem.
Pic: AP
For one thing, even if one were to assume this is a permanent truce rather than a suspended one, it still leaves tariffs considerably higher than they were only last year. And China faces tariffs far higher than most other countries (tot up the existing ones and the Trump era ones and China faces average tariffs of around 40%, while the average for most countries is between 8% and 14%, according to Capital Economics).
In other words, the US is still implementing an economic policy designed to increase the cost of doing business with China, even if it no longer attempts to prevent it altogether. The fact that last week’s trade agreement with the UK contains clauses seemingly designed to encourage it to raise trade barriers against China for reasons of “security” only reinforces this suspicion. The trade war is still simmering, even if it’s no longer as hot as it was a few days ago.
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And more broadly, the deeper impact of the trade rollercoaster in recent months is unlikely to disappear altogether. Companies remain more nervous about investing in factories and expansions in the face of such deep economic instability. No-one is entirely sure the White House won’t just U-turn once again.
That being said, it’s hard not to escape the conclusion that the US president has blinked in this trade war. In the face of a potential recession, he has pulled back from the scariest and most damaging of his tariffs, earlier and to a greater extent than many had expected.
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