Boris Johnson hustings: Flustered would-be PM laughs off Tory takedown threat after dodging questions on police incident
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Your support makes all the difference.Tory leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to answer questions about police being called to his flat as he took part in the first run-off hustings to become the next prime minister.
Police officers were alerted early on Friday to an incident at the home Mr Johnson shares with partner Carrie Symonds, after neighbours said there had been a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging.
Pressed on the incident as he faced an audience of Tory members in Birmingham, Mr Johnson said: “I don’t think they want to hear about that kind of thing.”
When asked by hustings moderator Iain Dale whether a person’s private life has any bearing on someone’s ability to discharge the office of prime minister, the crowd booed and Mr Johnson said: “Don’t boo the great man.”
Mr Johnson added: “I’ve tried to give my answer pretty exhaustively.
“I think what people want to know is whether I have the determination and the courage to deliver on the commitments that I’m making, and it will need a lot of grit right now.
“People are entitled to ask about me and my determination, my character and what I want to do for the country.”
Mr Johnson was taking part in the leadership event with foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt as the two men battle to win the support of 160,000 Tory party members who will choose the next prime minister.
Mr Hunt warned “catastrophe awaits” if the wrong person if sent to Brussels to negotiate Brexit. He said: “If we send the wrong person there’s going to be no negotiation, no trust, no deal, and if Parliament stops that, maybe no Brexit.
“Send the right person and there’s a deal to be done. Send that right person and we can do what we all need to do, which is come back with something positive for our country. And that’s what I want to do.”
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Reviews coming in for Boris Johnson’s performance. Tory MP David Morris was not impressed.
That strange moment again when Tory members booed Iain Dale for asking Boris Johnson about the police being called to his home.
“I will never provoke a general election before we’ve left the European Union,” says Hunt to huge cheers.
He calls the Labour leadership a “ruthless, dangerous, anti-British, anti-western hard-left cabal”
“Faced with a hard left populist we could choose our own populist or we could choose our own Jeremy,” repeating a dig at both Johnson and Corbyn he made earlier today.
Hunt says he wants to work with the DUP to negotiate a new Brexit deal, saying he wants to reconstruct “the Conservative-DUP family”.
“If Corbyn gets into No.10, there will never be Brexit,” says Hunt.
Iain Dale says “Jeremy Corbyn has a Euroskeptic voting record as good as John Redwood,” and accuses Hunt of flip-flopping on Brexit.
Hunt appears a little flustered, but replies: “We’ve got to come together and deliver Brexit.”
Looks like Rory Stewart is still confused about what Boris Johnson actually believes in.
Iain Dale giving Jeremy Hunt a real grilling over Brexit. “I think it’s very important that leaders keep our word,” the candidate says. “If parliament blocks no deal the only way to overcome that would be to have a general election … So we must only promise what we can deliver.”
Asked about his biggest personal crisis, Hunt says it was going through the Leveson Inquiry, which brought the world’s press to his door when he had very young children. “I found my inner steel when that happened … I fought to clear my name, and I did.”
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