Daily Mirror - 06.09.2019

mirror.co.uk FRIDAY 06.09.2019 DAILY MIRROR^5

DM1ST

PRIME MINISTER EVER

increasingly isolated after ministers

distanced themselves from his purge

of moderates, which included veterans

Ken Clarke and Nicholas Soames.

Chancellor Sajid Javid said he would

like “a way” for them to come back.

Former PM Sir John Major waded

into the row with an attack on Mr

Johnson’s aide Dominic Cummings. He

branded him a “political anarchist, who

cares not a fig” for the party.

[email protected]

@PippaCrerar

VOICE OF THE MIRROR: PAGE 8

with me about the European Union

because it’s an issue that obviously

divides families and divides everybody.”

Mr Johnson, who also has a brother

Leo, has been deeply critical of sibling

splits in the past.

He said of Ed and David Miliband’s

rivalry during the Labour leadership

campaign in 2010: “We don’t do things

that way, that’s a very left-wing thing.

“Only a socialist could regard familial

ties as being so trivial as to shaft

his brother.”

Mr Johnson was yesterday looking

him that Boris Johnson is really not

very good at this, not very good at

serious politics and is going to crash

and burn. The sooner the better.”

And Mr Dawnay did the same with

a post from London Labour politician

Tom Copley who wrote: “Boris Johnson

is the opposite of a statesman. He lacks

all of the qualities that make someone

a good leader.”

After Mr Johnson’s speech yesterday,

he said sheepishly his brother was a

“fantastic guy” and a “brilliant

minister”. He added: “Jo does not agree

Amazon and trying to push it through

a letter box. He can’t do it.

“It cannot be done and I tell him but

he cannot change the position he took.”

Rachel’s husband Ivo Dawnay also

highlighted the family split when he

tweeted about Jo quitting: “Well done.”

He had also backed comments by

key Labour figures criticising Mr

Johnson for his bullying and bluff and

bluster just days into his new job.

He retweeted former Tony Blair spin

doctor Alastair Campbell who posted:

“It is dawning on the people behind

COMMENT

BY PIPPAR CRERAR , POLITICAL EDITOR

Little brother

who dealt the

biggest blow

UNTIL Jo Johnson undermined

his brother’s premiership

yesterday, the most infamous

sibling rivalry at Westminster

was that of the Milibands.

Boris Johnson had strong

views on that psychodrama,

insisting in 2013 that it was a

“very left-wing thing” to “shaft”

your own brother.

He even linked that Labour

leadership saga to Stalin.

“Only lefties can think like

that. They see people as discrete

agents devoid of ties to society

or to each other, and that’s how

Stalin could murder 20million

people,” he said.

Now Mr Johnson’s own family

rivalries have come to haunt him.

The siblings have so far been

able to keep politics separate

from family life, despite their

stark differences over Europe.

But in a tempestuous week,

their differences proved too

much and Jo, MP for Orpington

for nine years, stood down citing

“unresolvable tension” between

family loyalty and national

interest.

OVERSHADOWED

At 47 he is the youngest

Johnson child, and growing up

was always treated as the baby

by his older siblings.

He followed Boris to Eton,

then on to Oxford.

He joined Deutsche Bank as

an investment banker and the

Financial Times as a journalist.

Unlike his brother — who was

sacked from the Times — he

stayed at his first big paper,

becoming Paris correspondent,

South Asia bureau chief and an

associate editor.

He arrived at Westminster in

2010 as Boris became Mayor of

London, but remained in his

shadow.

Jo, married to the Guardian

journalist Amelia Gentleman,

gained a reputation as quieter

and more cerebral than Boris.

He swiftly became head of

David Cameron’s No10 policy

unit and rose through the ranks

as a Cabinet Office, Universities

and Transport Minister before

the sudden end to his career.

DISOWNING STREET Jo in

Westminster yesterday

Party pooper

» Brexit talk banned at family

chats but Boris alone in views

» Brother Jo quits Cabinet &

sister urges PM to do U-turn

Boris Johnson poses such a

threat that even his own

brother doesn’t trust him

LABOUR RESPONDING TO JO QUITTING AS MP AND MINISTER

SIBLING

STRAIN

Rachel with

her brothers

Boris and Jo