A former Conservative Party chairman has labelled Boris Johnson a “moral vacuum” for his failure to apologise for the false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
In a stinging attack on the prime minister, Lord Chris Patten also suggested the party had undergone “fundamental change” with some sections having “turned into an English nationalist, populist, Johnsonian cult”.
His intervention comes after an exodus of senior officials from No 10, including Mr Johnson’s long-standing aide Munira Mirza, who quit last night in protest at the prime minister’s comments towards Sir Keir in the Commons.
Three other officials, including the No 10 director of communications and chief-of-staff, also announced their departure from Downing Street amid the ongoing fallout over allegations of parties during Covid restrictions.
Addressing the prime minister’s widely condemned comments on Savile, which have also attracted criticism from Tory MPs, Lord Patten told the BBC’s World at One: “I always thought the show was likely to end in disaster.
“And I fear that’s what's happened,” he said. “It’s been particularly scarred in the last act by this sort of scurrilous attack on Keir Starmer for which there was no purpose, other than to try to get a few members of the right wing of the Conservative party in the House of Commons excited”.
He also praised the chancellor Rishi Sunak – tipped as Mr Johnson’s most likely successor if he is forced from office – for distancing himself from the prime minister’s remarks during a press conference on Thursday.
“I’ve heard other ministers being asked whether they would repeat the words and they sort of dodge and dart and duck and bob and weave without being prepared to say it,” the former cabinet minister said.
“But it was obviously completely unnecessary and just an example of him saying whatever suits him at any given moment.”
After it emerged Ms Mirza had privately urged the prime minister to apologise for the comments to the Labour leader, Lord Patten said Mr Johnson “took no notice because I think he’s incapable of doing that – I think he is a moral vacuum”.
His comments appear to echo those of another Tory grandee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who told the BBC’s Newsnight that the prime minister had become “toxic”, adding: “With the best will in the world, one has to say this is not so much the end of the beginning but it is the beginning of the end”.
Taking aim at the direction of the Conservatives – a party he chaired between 1990 and 1992 – Lord Patten also said sections of it had “turned into an English nationalist, populist, Johnsonian cult”.
“The party which I was proud to be part of, they would not have done some of the things which Boris and his colleagues have been doing,” he added.
“I really do think there’s been a fundamental change. I don’t think I’ll ever be anything other than a Conservative but I don’t think we’ve got a Conservative government at the moment.”
Questioning the favourites to succeed Mr Johnson should he step down as prime minister, he went on: “Who are they said to want next? They are said to want Liz Truss, which I don’t think would be a frightfully good idea to put it mildly, but there is a real danger now of the government playing to the right and doing stupid things about the Northern Ireland protocol”.
He also dismissed suggestions the departure of key aides from Mr Johnson’s Downing Street operation could represent a “fresh start”, saying it was “very difficult to see given the problem isn’t the staff” and rather “the person who employs them, the person who is supposed to lead in No 10”.
However, addressing staff in No 10 on Friday morning, Mr Johnson attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials, quoting The Lion King as he told remaining staff: “Change is good”.
In an address to his No 10 team in the cabinet room – watched by some on video link – the prime minister acknowledged that the government was going through “challenging times” and misjudgements had been made.
But he told them: “As Rafiki in The Lion King says, change is good, and change is necessary even though it’s tough. We’ve got to get on with our job of serving the people of this country.”
