Boris Johnson was reportedly humiliated in yesterday’s cabinet following his demand for more money for the NHS. If it was the Prime Minister’s intention to embarrass Boris Johnson it was a mistake, says the Times. In its editorial, the paper calls the ministerial discussions ‘an exercise in staged humiliation rather than consensus-building’. The PM may well be thinking that her ability to survive a tumultuous few months now means ‘that she is not only safe but steadily confounding her critics’. Such thinking would also be wrong, the paper argues, pointing out that Boris’s ‘return to trouble-making…reflects deepening frustration with Downing Street on both wings of the party’. Britain needs ‘drive and dynamism’ from its government; instead, it gets ‘hesitation and indecision’. Sir Nicholas Soames’s #dulldulldull tweet has the ring of truth about it, argues the paper. And it is also clearly the case that the leadership the Tories ‘crave’ is badly missing. Yet this doesn’t mean that a leadership bid from Boris or someone else would not necessarily solve this problem, the Times points out. ‘It is clear (however) that Mrs May could not be counted on to beat’ Jeremy Corbyn, and this makes one conclusion inevitable: the party ’needs a new leader before the next election’. When she became PM, May had ‘a hint of Mrs Thatcher’s steel’. Ever since, though, this has been missing. If May cannot ‘redefine herself in the public imagination as a deserving leader, not just a default one’, she must begin to help the Conservatives in their transition to find her replacement. If she refuses to, the party ‘could be sleepwalking to disaster,’ concludes the Times.
The Sun takes aim at Boris’s critics who called for his head after he strayed outside his brief as Foreign Secretary to demand more money for the NHS. ‘Don’t they realise most voters think he has a point?,’ the paper asks. Their dislike of Boris is getting the better of them, suggests the Sun, which argues that some of the Foreign Secretary’s ‘remainer’ critics should look at their ‘own efforts to undermine a democratic referendum’, rather than call Boris ‘treacherous’.
But the Guardian is not impressed by Boris’ antics – even if it agrees with his demand for more money for the NHS. The paper says that Boris has been ‘parading in the headlines’ again and that ‘the intervention was about Mr Johnson’s ambition, not the NHS’. But even though Boris is back to ‘playing politics’, he is ‘right about two things’. The NHS crisis is ‘doing grave harm to the Tories’, and ‘more cash’ is badly needed. Boris is right on both fronts.
But what could an extra £100m a week actually do for the NHS? The Daily Telegraph is sceptical, suggesting that the cash could end up being wasted if it isn’t spent wisely. Of course, this intervention could just be Boris ‘on manoeuvres’. ‘But there was method to his manoeuvring’, says the Telegraph. His comments could help the Tories ‘counter the Brexit gloom-mongers by reminding voters that there is a dividend for the country’. It’s true the money being suggested is less than the infamous £350m bus pledge made during the referendum. But despite this, voters should be reminded again that ‘when we leave (the EU) there is a big saving to be had’. These same voters are also – like Tory MPs – ‘crying out for positive messages’. To be fair to the Foreign Secretary, he ‘is at least trying to answer the call, even if his motives have been questioned’. Yet the danger of giving the NHS more money is that it needs to also think about reform before it gets more cash. ‘Merely promising a further £100 million a week without also considering whether and how the NHS can be reformed is to throw good money after bad’, says the Telegraph.
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