Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson sparks a fresh outbreak of Tory civil war

Well, that didn’t take long. Just one week into the new parliamentary term and a case of civil war has broke out in the Conservative party over Boris Johnson. The former foreign secretary makes the front of most Sunday papers – with some running more than one P1 story about him. Following the news that Johnson is divorcing his wife Marina Wheeler, his ‘close friendship’ with a female former Tory aide makes three papers. The Sunday Times reports that a sleaze dossier – linked to No 10 – on weaponising Johnson’s private has been doing the rounds over the past week. However, the author of the document points out that they no longer work for Theresa May and says they drew this up after the EU referendum.

Next up, Johnson himself has added some fuel to the fire (or thrown a dead cat onto the table) with a Mail on Sunday article accusing Theresa May of wrapping a ‘suicide vest’ around Britain in the Brexit negotiations – and handing a detonator to Brussels. This comparison has led a number of Tory MPs to rush to social media to make their disgust be known. Alan Duncan – Johnson’s old colleague in the Foreign Office – has said this ‘marks one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics’. If it’s not the ‘political end of Boris Johnson’, he says, ‘I will make sure it is later’. Tom Tugendhat – another old foe of Johnson – chips in:

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