Sleaze could spell end for Boris Johnson says Tory donor

John Caudwell, who donated £500,000 to the Tories before the last UK election hit out at Boris Johnson’s ‘mistakes and faux pas’.

Boris Johnson is plummeting in the UK polls. Picture: Getty Images.

A billionaire Conservative donor has questioned Boris Johnson’s future because of his handling of sleaze.

John Caudwell, who founded Phones4U, donated £500,000 to the Conservatives before the last general election but has hit out at “the mistakes and faux pas” committed by the prime minister in recent months.

“What really concerns me is this sleaze issue and him not standing firmly enough against what’s gone on,” Caudwell, 69, told The Observer. “I was unbelievably disappointed when I heard him almost defending and … trying to find an out for Owen Paterson.”

Paterson, a cabinet minister under David Cameron, was handed a six-week suspension from parliament for breaking lobbying rules in October. In an attempt to rescue him, Johnson proposed an overhaul of the standards system under which he had been investigated. The prime minister backed down after an angry response from MPs, including some of his own, and Paterson resigned.

The North Shropshire by-election that followed ended in a rout at the hands of the Liberal Democrats. “I’m not sure he can survive this, and I’m not even sure he should survive it,” Caudwell said. “If he cleaned his act up and made it clear to MPs that they cannot take money from other sources, and started trying to get the government on a very ethical, whiter-than-white basis, I guess I would still support him. But the question you’ve really got to answer is, is it in his character to do so?”

Caudwell still liked Johnson “as a charismatic leader”. He said: “It’s a very, very positive thing to have somebody who feels down to earth, so I like Boris from that point of view.”

Polls have suggested that Johnson and his party are in dire straits. Last week a YouGov poll for The Times gave Labour a six-point lead. The Conservatives’ standing at 30 per cent was their lowest since September 2019. In mid-October the Conservatives were on 41 per cent, ten points ahead of Labour.

Johnson’s personal ratings have declined dramatically. Asked which of the main party leaders would make the best prime minister, 22 per cent said Johnson, compared with 34 per cent who opted for Sir Keir Starmer.

The Times