A politician who hates to lose – question is whether Boris Johnson has the appetite and ability to win once more | Beth Rigby
A politician who thrives on drama and attention, Boris Johnson’s bombshell resignation on Friday night was true to form: once again the former prime minister left Westminster reeling, while also throwing in grenades against enemies that will ensure he remains in the spotlight for some time yet.
It was undoubtedly a shock: even one of his closest allies told me a few minutes after his excoriating resignation letter landed, that they had no idea this was coming. It was also vintage Johnson, as the former prime minister unleashed a full frontal attack on the protagonists he believed caused his demise: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the “kangaroo court” privileges committee who Mr Johnson insisted was always going to find him guilty regardless of the evidence.
As with his resignation from No 10, there was not a scrap of contrition or regard for the democratic process that had got him to this place (remember there was a Commons vote that kicked off the inquiry and there’s also a Tory majority on that committee).
Instead there was fury, defiance and the threat of revenge laced through his remarks. He ended his statement saying he was “very sad to be leaving Parliament – at least for now”.
Cue frenzied speculation about whether he might find another seat to come back in before the next general election. Whatever he does now, what is clear is that he’ll be hurling in rocks from the sidelines at a prime minister he’s determined to destroy.
But surveying the scene of Mr Johnson’s bombshell the morning after, the timing of the detonation makes perfect sense.
We knew two things about the former prime minister: he was very focused on getting his resignation honours lists through, and he’d said himself at the privilege committee hearings that he wouldn’t accept the findings if members didn’t find in his favour.
Having received a copy of their report a few days ago, he’d clearly decided to quit rather than suffer the humiliation of being sanctioned and potentially suspended as an MP through a Commons vote. So when his honours list was secured and published, it was time for Mr Johnson to go.
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Tory MP pays tribute to Johnson
We don’t yet know the findings of the committee – due to meet on Monday to decide whether to now expedite the publication of its report – but we do know from Mr Johnson’s furious response that it’s likely MPs determined he had wilfully or recklessly misled the House, and were preparing to recommend a suspension of more than 10 sitting days from the Commons.
We currently only have Mr Johnson’s versions of events, as the former prime minister looked to set the narrative on a report that is almost certainly going to be very damning indeed. We know the privileges committee has received more evidence regarding Mr Johnson, since the initial partygate hearings earlier this year.
Last month, Boris Johnson was referred to police over further potential lockdown breaches by the Cabinet Office, which had been reviewing documents as part of the COVID inquiry. His ministerial diary revealed visits by family and friends to the prime ministerial country retreat Chequers during the pandemic. The information handed to the police was also handed to the privileges committee as part of its investigation. While Mr Johnson’s spokesperson immediately dismissed claims of breaches as a “politically motivated stitch-up”, another figure told me that the evidence is damning and has Mr Johnson “bang to rights”.
“There was an expectation that MPs would try to avoid the highest sanction, that they have gone there means it must be pretty bad,” says one Whitehall figure, who believes that the privileges committee has been unanimous in its verdict against him (we won’t know that for sure until the report is out).
The big question on my mind now is whether Mr Johnson will – or can – stage a comeback, and to what extent he’ll be able to disrupt his political nemesis Mr Sunak from outside the tent.
When it comes to the former question, the former prime minister has clearly decided not to box himself in and there is a big chunk of the activist base, as well as the parliamentary base, that are Mr Johnson backers.
But it’s equally true that this close to an election, Conservative MPs don’t want to stoke division – with a nod to the old adage that divided parties don’t win elections.
His most loyal backers on Friday night rode out on Twitter and TV screens to denounce the privileges committee, rather than amplify further Mr Johnson’s pointed criticisms about Mr Sunak and his government.
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Rayner: ‘Good riddance’ to Johnson
For its part, the Number 10 team were relieved when Mr Johnson failed to lead a huge rebellion and don’t believe he had anything near the potency he once had. “We’re in a period where Rishi is doing well restoring trust after a period of distress,” is how one figure close to the PM put it to me. “I don’t think the mood in the party is pitch forks.”
That’s not to say Number 10 isn’t worried by an unleashed and furious Mr Johnson determined to settle scores, but, as another person put it: “He is one man, the party is more than that and we sometimes lose sight of that in the Johnson circus.”
But the criticisms Mr Johnson has levelled at Mr Sunak – justified or not – are potent. There’s the criticism of Mr Sunak’s handling of Brexit and failure to get a UK-US free trade deal, to his call for lower taxes and bemoaning the lack of political momentum going into an election.
Those in government might remark in exasperation that the relationship between Mr Johnson and President Biden meant a free trade deal is something he’d never had been able to do, but that doesn’t matter much – what matters is that these dog whistles rally a base in the party frustrated by the new regime. He already has in the new grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation, a movement which he could lead.
What he’ll do next, we don’t know. But the signs are that he intends, with his allies, to be a political menace. A third by-election was triggered on Saturday after another key Johnson backer Nigel Adams announced he too was quitting Westminster with immediate effect. That on top of the two sparked by Mr Johnson and that of his closest political ally Nadine Dorries are the last thing his successor needs. Lose them, and it all feeds into the narrative that Mr Sunak is a busted flush.
Read more:
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There are obvious questions as to whether Mr Johnson will try to stand in Ms Dorries’ mid-Beds seat, where the Conservatives are defending a 24,000 majority, or return to another safe seat before the next election (there were plenty of rumours before all of this that Mr Johnson was on the look out for a safer seat than Uxbridge and South Ruislip).
He could equally return to writing a newspaper column or editorship. What’s clear from his resignation statement is that he still intends to hold the spotlight whether Mr Sunak likes it or not.
Those around him tell me Mr Johnson shouldn’t be written off and feels deeply aggrieved by what he sees as a campaign within No 10 and the cabinet office to defenestrate him, with briefings against him in the run-up to the publication of the privileges committee report and then vote in Commons. His camp believe fervently that Mr Sunak is trying to drive them from parliament and the party: they are defiant and this, if you like, is the beginning of a fight back. I’m told more resignations are likely.
For the current regime, Mr Johnson’s attack gives voice to those supporters angry that – in the words of one – Mr Sunak is unpicking the 2019 manifesto despite having neither a mandate from he public or party members. For many Conservatives, it is Mr Johnson who has the box office appeal and ability to connect with voters in a way that Mr Sunak does not. Those loyal to him are ready to rally should he mount an attempt to return to parliament.
There are detractors who say Mr Johnson is done, that the partygate scandal has damaged his standing with the public and the party beyond repair.
A snap poll out today by YouGov found that nearly three in four Britons believe Mr Johnson committed further breaches of COVID rules than those he’s already been investigated and fined for.
In some ways, the easier thing for Mr Johnson to do was make this resignation the concluding chapter of his political life. But instead he’s chosen to leave the door open to a sequel.
A politician who above all hates to lose, the question is, after all that’s passed, whether he still has the appetite – and ability – to try once more to win. Never rule him out.
World
Russian forces creep through disused gas pipeline in attempt to launch surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers
Russian special forces crept through a disused gas pipeline for several miles to launch a surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and pro-Moscow war bloggers have said.
Footage circulating on the Telegram app claims to show the elite soldiers crouching as they make their way through the darkness of the pipe to the town of Sudzha.
Some can be heard cursing in Russian and complaining about the commanders who sent them on the mission.
One of the soldiers is heard saying: “F*****g hell, where the f*** are we, boys?”
Another says: “Where does the pipe go? To Sudzha, for f**** sake, that’s f***ing crazy.”
Later in the clip a soldier is heard saying: “We’ll get there of course, but indignantly, because we’re f*****g sick of the f*****g command.”
He later adds: “They took our f*****g assault rifles too.”
Two of the soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes while a separate image shared on Telegram shows an operative wearing a gas mask.
The footage shows soldiers creeping through the pipeline
Soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes
The special forces soldiers walked around nine miles (15km) through the pipeline which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe, according to Telegram posts by Ukrainian-born pro-Kremlin blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
In the footage, the soldiers suggest the mission requires them to walk seven miles through the pipe.
Mr Podolyaka says some of them spent several days in the pipeline before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near Sudzha.
The operation formed part of efforts by Russia to recapture areas of Kursk which were seized by thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in a shock offensive in August last year.
Another pro-Russian war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said a major battle is under way in Sudzha after Moscow’s special forces crept through the pipe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed on Saturday that Russian soldiers had used the pipeline in an attempt to gain a foothold, but airborne assault forces promptly detected them, and they responded with rocket, artillery and drone attacks that destroyed Moscow’s units.
“The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the general staff reported.
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A close-up image of one of the soldiers in the pipeline
The soldiers crept through the tunnel for several miles
It comes as Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces shared a video on Telegram on Saturday which it claims shows Kyiv’s forces repelling Russian forces in Kursk with airstrikes.
Sky News has not independently verified the footage.
Months after Kyiv’s forces seized parts of Kursk, Ukrainian soldiers are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 Russian troops, including some from Moscow’s ally North Korea.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield showed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that it had captured a settlement in Kursk and another in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Russia also launched heavy aerial attacks overnight on Ukraine into Saturday – with at least 22 people killed, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelenskyy described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
The attacks come after the US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Mr Zelenskyy descended into a confrontation in front of the world’s media.
The Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine and apparent favouring of Moscow has sparked concern among European leaders.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told Sky News on Sunday that European countries should “absolutely” introduce conscription as he conceded the continent was “quite weak” militarily in the face of the Russia threat.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have been criticised after presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders on International Women’s Day.
Russia is often accused of throwing its troops into a “meat grinder” with little regard for their lives.
The local branch of government in the northwestern Russian town of Polyarniye Zori defended itself against the backlash, saying critics were making “callous and provocative interpretations” of the gifts.
Canada is set for a new prime minister as the ruling Liberal Party prepares to announce Justin Trudeau’s replacement as leader.
Mr Trudeau, who has been prime minister since 2015, announced he was stepping down in January after facing calls to quit from a chorus of his own MPs.
The 53-year-old’s popularity had declined as food and house prices rose.
The Liberal Party will announce its new leader tonight following a vote by around 140,000 members.
A former Bank of England governor has emerged as the frontrunner as the country deals with the impacts of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
The next prime minister will also have to decide when to call a general election – which must be held on or before 20 October.
As the Liberal Party prepares to choose its new leader, we take a look at the candidates.
Mark Carney
Mark Carney addresses supporters in Alberta in March. Pic: AP
The 59-year-old will be a familiar face to many in the UK as he served as governor of the Bank of England between 2013 and 2020.
He was formerly the head of Canada’s central bank and was praised after the country recovered from the 2008 financial crisis faster than many other countries.
Mr Carney has picked up one endorsement after another from cabinet ministers and MPs since he declared his candidacy in January.
He did not serve in Mr Trudeau’s government but was named as the chair of a government task force on economic growth last September.
Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Mr Carney’s calm demeanour and outstanding resume make him a reassuring figure to many Canadians at a time when Mr Trump is “going after their country’s economy and sovereignty”.
Read more:
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Canadian PM criticises Trump over tariffs
Chrystia Freeland
Chrystia Freeland speaks during the Liberal leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Ms Freeland, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Canada, was leading in the polls to replace Mr Trudeau shortly after he announced his resignation.
However, her long association with the outgoing prime minister and the threat of Mr Trump’s tariffs have since tipped things in Mr Carney’s favour.
The 56-year-old was born in the west Canadian province of Alberta to a Ukrainian mother.
Before entering politics in 2013, Ms Freeland worked as a journalist covering Russia and Ukraine for several years.
Mr Trudeau told Ms Freeland that he no longer wanted her as finance minister in December but that she could remain deputy prime minister and the point person for US-Canada relations.
She stepped down shortly after and released a scathing letter about the government which increased pressure on Mr Trudeau ahead of his resignation.
Karina Gould
Karina Gould speaks during the Liberal Party leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Ms Gould is the youngest woman to serve as a minister in Canada and has advocated for a tough stance on Mr Trump.
The 37-year-old, who has served as minister of democratic institutions and minister of international development, has previously branded herself as part of a “generational shift” and said the Liberal Party “needs to embrace this shift too”.
Ms Gould has reportedly proposed an increase in corporate taxes on large companies earning more than CAN$500m (£270m) a year to encourage them to reinvest in business and productivity.
She was serving as house leader until January 2025 when she left the cabinet to run for party leader.
Frank Baylis
Frank Baylis during the Liberal Leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Mr Baylis, a businessman from Montreal, served as a Liberal Party politician between 2015 and 2019.
The 62-year-old has reportedly proposed creating two pipelines that would transport natural gas to international markets in Europe and Asia to reduce dependence on America.
Mr Baylis criticised Mr Trudeau for travelling to meet Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November.
He said: “Anybody’s that ever dealt with a bully successfully know you don’t give an inch.”
What’s next for Canada?
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‘You can’t take our country or our game’
The new leader of the Liberal Party is expected to call a general election shortly after they take up the role.
After decades of bilateral stability, Canada’s next election is expected to focus on who is best equipped to deal with the United States.
Mr Trump’s trade war and his talk of making the country the 51st state have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games.
Some are cancelling trips south and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, has embraced a populist approach not unlike Mr Trump’s.
He attacks the mainstream media and has vowed to put “Canada First”.
Before Mr Trump’s inauguration, the Conservatives were widely expected to win the country’s next election.
However, the US president’s threats against Canada have led to a surge in popularity for the Liberal Party in the polls.
World
Zelenskyy condemns ‘vile and inhumane’ Russian attacks after one of year’s deadliest days for Ukrainian civilians
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ukraine’s allies for condemning Russian strikes after one of the deadliest days for civilians in his country so far this year.
Ukraine’s president described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
While a warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Russia launched heavy aerial attacks overnight into Saturday after the White House administration suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
The US has been piling pressure on President Zelenskyy’s government to cooperate in convening peace talks with Russia.
American aerospace company Maxar Technologies said on Friday it had disabled access to its satellite imagery for Kyiv. Its ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is very much diminished without such images.
At least 22 people were killed in multiple Russian attacks, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
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Russian strike kills at least 11 in Ukraine
Russia fired two ballistic missiles into the town centre, then launched a strike targeting rescuers who responded, according to Mr Zelenskyy. Forty-seven people, including seven children, were injured in the attack.
“It is a vile and inhumane intimidation tactic to which the Russians often resort,” he said.
The president added: “It was one of the most brutal strikes, a combined one. The strike was deliberately calculated to cause maximum damage. Missiles, along with a Shahed drone, targeted the central part of the town.
“Nine residential buildings were hit. Also, the shopping centre and stores were struck.”
Read more:
Russia ‘appears to have ignored Trump warning’
US pausing military aid is ‘betrayal’ to Ukraine, soldier says
People stand at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike in Dobropillia. Pic: Reuters
Another seven people were killed in four towns close to the frontline where Russian troops have been making steady advances, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Three others died when a Russian drone hit a civilian workshop in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services reported. And one man was killed by shelling in the region.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was one of 2025’s deadliest attacks for Ukrainian civilians.
Pic: Reuters
Some 24 hours earlier, Russia struck Ukrainian energy facilities using dozens of missiles and drones.
The attacks hampered Ukraine’s ability to supply power to its citizens and run weapons factories vital to its defences.
When asked on Friday if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the US pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, Mr Trump responded: “I think he’s doing what anybody else would.”
Mr Zelenskyy did not mention intelligence-sharing on Saturday, but said he welcomed Mr Trump’s proposal to bring in banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final peace settlement is reached.
Read more from Sky News:
South Korea’s impeached president released from prison
Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge?
Mr Zelenskyy also said: “I am grateful to all the leaders, all those diplomats of our partner countries, all public figures who support Ukraine, who have condemned these Russian strikes and who call all things by their proper names.
“And it is essential that we continue coordinating all our efforts with our partners to ensure that our defence works effectively and that we do everything to bring peace closer.”
Mr Zelenskyy has said he and other senior Ukrainian officials will go to Saudi Arabia next week to discuss proposals aimed at ending the war.
In a post on X, he wrote he was set to meet Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, and his team would remain in the country to have talks with US officials.
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