Punk in Finland

Sack Boris Johnson for shaming our nation, Jeremy Corbyn tells PM

The Labour leader has accused the foreign secretary of ‘undermining our country’

Toby Helm, Ben Quinn and Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Sunday 12 November 2017 00.23 GMT
First published on Saturday 11 November 2017 22.00 GMT

Jeremy Corbyn has fired an extraordinary broadside against Boris Johnson, calling for him to be sacked immediately as foreign secretary for “undermining our country” and “putting our citizens at risk”.

The blistering attack – and demand that Theresa May fire him – was delivered exclusively in a statement to the Observer on Saturday night, as pressure mounted on Johnson over his diplomatic blunder in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother imprisoned in Iran.

The Labour leader cites a litany of undiplomatic and ill-chosen statements from Johnson since his appointment by May as foreign secretary in July last year.

Corbyn accuses him of having a “colonial throwback take on the world”, and of repeatedly “letting our country down”.

It is the mishandling of the “heartbreaking” case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe that persuaded Corbyn to call for his dismissal. His statement ends: “We’ve put up with Johnson embarrassing and undermining our country with his incompetence and colonial throwback views and putting our citizens at risk for long enough. It’s time for him to go.”

The intervention places both May and Johnson under renewed pressure after 10 days in which the prime minister has been forced to dismiss defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon for inappropriate behaviour towards women, and the international development secretary, Priti Patel, for conducting a freelance aid policy in the Middle East without informing No 10 or the Foreign Office.

The tensions in Theresa May’s government have intensified ahead of this week’s vital votes on the Brexit bill, as ministers accused Boris Johnson and Michael Gove of sending an “Orwellian” set of secret demands to No 10.

As an increasingly weakened prime minister faces the possibility of parliamentary defeats on the bill, government colleagues have said they are aghast at the language used by the foreign secretary and the environment secretary in a joint private letter.
The leaked letter – a remarkable show of unity from two ministers who infamously fell out during last year’s leadership campaign – appeared to be designed to push May decisively towards a hard Brexit and limit the influence of former remainers.

The EU is concerned that turmoil within the Conservatives could prevent the British side from making a clear financial commitment at a key Brussels summit in December, which could delay progress until March.

Barnier, who last week gave the UK a two-week deadline to provide greater clarity on the financial settlement it was prepared to offer as part of the divorce deal, told France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper the failure of the talks was not his preferred option.

“But it’s a possibility,” he said. “Everyone needs to plan for it, member states and businesses alike. We too are making technical preparations for it. On 29 March 2019, the United Kingdom will become a third country.”

Member states will decide at a summit on 14 and 15 December whether or not “sufficient progress” has been made on the core separation issues – the divorce bill, the Irish border and citizens’ rights – for negotiations to advance to the next stage.

“We want to reach an agreement [with the UK] within the next 14 working days,” Barnier said, so the summit’s draft conclusions can be circulated and approved in time. “Today, we are not there. The rendezvous will be postponed if progress is not sufficient.”

Conservative plotters against May claim they have 40 MPs backing a motion of “no confidence” against her. Rebel leaders told the Sunday Times that May has made the situation more dangerous because some MPs were now sending letters directly to Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee.

Kristitty ja IT-alan työntekijä wrote:”Meillä on edessä kansankuntamme pahin ulkopoliittinen kriisi sitten toisen maailmansodan. Vanha kunnon sisäpoliittinen kriisi keventäisi nyt tunnelmaa, I say.”