Boris Johnson has told friends that the £141,000 a year he earns as a minister isn’t enough money to live on due to his ‘extensive family responsibilities’, according to a report in The Sunday Times.
In the report, Johnson has also intervened with Brexit terms yet again by calling for a two-year limit on any transition period after the UK leaves the EU, and said that after this period the UK should refuse to make payments for single market access.
Sickening
The absurd claim that such a huge amount is not enough to live on will certainly come as a shock to many.
Those in the public sector should be particularly offended. A nurse earns an average salary of £23,000 per year, and it is has been widely reported over the last year that some are having to resort to food banks and loans in order to survive.
For a Tory minister to claim that £141,000 per year is not enough is sickening and in extremely bad taste. Johnson clearly has no understanding of what it is like to live in the real world.
If he is struggling with £141,000 per year, how does he think that those crippled with his party’s austerity measures are coping?
Is the party turning against Boris?
It almost feels as if Boris is out of control at the minute. Though Theresa May claimed on The Andrew Marr Show that Boris is ‘fully behind’ her plan for Brexit, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that he seems to undermine the Prime Minister at any given opportunity.
The common feeling at the Conservative conference is expected to be that Boris should be put in his place, as the party turns against him.
Though a YouGov poll showed last week that Boris Johnson is now the favourite among the Conservatives to be the next party leader, senior Tories and cabinet ministers have since warned Johnson that “no one is unsackable”.
Unsackable?
Yet, it doesn’t seem that way. The foreign secretary seems to get away with everything. In fact, in September he was still peddling the lie that the NHS will receive £350 million a week when Britain leaves the EU, despite it being debunked numerous times.
After being asked by Marr if Johnson is now ‘unsackable’, the Prime Minister dodged the question – suggesting that she would indeed be unable to get rid of him without a leadership challenge.
Pushing everyone away
After seemingly alienating himself from his party, it seems Johnson is on a mission to put a wall (made of gold) between himself and his remaining supporters, too. Surely a claim that £140,000 a year is not enough to live on is yet another bad move by the foreign secretary? After all, even his wealthier fans would struggle to agree with that, especially during a time where hundreds of thousands of people throughout Britain are suffering because of austerity measures enforced by the Conservatives.
To repeat the NHS lie, which had a huge hand in getting Britain into the huge mess it’s in now, can’t be wise – many cast their vote backed on that lie, and a reminder of it is unlikely to do him any favours.
It is believed that May backs a softer Brexit rather than the one that the hardliners, led by Johnson, demand. Will the Conservative conference will push her into exerting her authority against Johnson, or will she simply avoid the subject, as she does with most complex issues?
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