Boris Johnson gets serious about No.10 bid, tries to shake off past

Boris Johnson swerved tricky questions about his past as he launched his bid to become PM.

Boris Johnson promised to combat a national mood of despair as he launched his campaign for No.10 but he is facing renewed scrutiny over his record as foreign secretary.

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the mother jailed in Iran, demanded to know what the candidates would do for Britons jailed abroad. A mistake in a comment by Mr Johnson was used as evidence against her.

The former foreign secretary vowed to end the Brexit “morass” and warned MPs they would face “moral retribution” from voters if the UK did not leave the EU. His low-key speech appeared designed to answer concerns about his temperament.

Mr Johnson, who has more than double the number of endorsements from MPs as his closest rivals, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove, insisted that he wanted a “sensible, orderly” departure from the EU but said the UK needed to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.

He told a packed crowd of MPs in Westminster spanning different wings of the Conservative Party: “Around the country there is a mood of disillusion, even despair, at our inability to get things done. After three years and two missed deadlines we must leave the EU on October 31. Delay means defeat. Delay means Corbyn. Kick the can and we kick the bucket.”

After the speech he swerved awkward questions about his character and record in office. He did not say if he had taken cocaine in the past. Asked whether he had ever broken the law, he replied that he may have exceeded the 70mp/h (112km/h) speed limit.

When he was asked by a journalist about his description last year of Muslim women who wore the burka as letterboxes, his supporters booed the journalist. He acknowledged that his use of language sometimes resulted in “some plaster coming off the ceiling”.

Mr Johnson’s launch was watched by his brother, Jo, the Conservative MP for Orpington who backs a second referendum; his father, Stanley, a former MEP; and his partner, Carrie Symonds, former director of communications for the Tories.

Protestors and the media surround Boris Johnson’s car as he leaves after launching his leadership campaign in London. Picture: AP

He repeatedly touted his record as mayor of London for eight years but his turbulent two years as foreign secretary will come under the spotlight after Richard Ratcliffe joined forces with four other relatives of Britons who have been detained abroad to demand that the next prime minister strengthen protections for others in their situation. The group has written to all ten Conservative leadership candidates asking to hear their thoughts on the matter. It states: “During the course of this leadership campaign, we hope you will take the time to set out how you would protect and ensure justice for British citizens unfairly held overseas.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, a British-Iranian charity worker employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been held in Iran since April 2016. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment, which she, her family and employers deny.

Mr Johnson was widely criticised in November 2017 when he told a select committee that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “simply teaching people journalism”. She herself had told Iran that she was in the country on holiday. She was summoned back before a court in Iran soon after, with Mr Johnson’s comments used as evidence against her.

Mr Ratcliffe told The Times: “Mistakes were famously made in Nazanin’s case, and potentially others, with consequences which she and others have had to bear. Government needs to learn the lessons of these mistakes, and solve them, rather than pretend they didn’t happen.”

Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP who has campaigned for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, said Mr Johnson was “not fit to run a single government department, let alone the country”. She added: “The first job of any prime minister is to protect British citizens at home and abroad. Boris Johnson has shown himself to be woefully incapable of doing so.”

Asked yesterday about the case, Liz Truss, one of Mr Johnson’s leading supporters, accused “apologists” for the Iranian regime of “putting the blame on Boris Johnson”.

Mr Johnson’s supporters seized on analysis by ComRes and Electoral Calculus suggesting that he would win a landslide victory in a general election but experts questioned the poll’s methods.

The Times