Boris Johnson And Jeremy Hunt's U-turning Tory Leadership Campaigns

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have been flying around the country together as they take each other on in front of Tory members as the battle to be the next prime minister heats up.

And while they may be separated in aircraft cabins by armed police, one thing has united them throughout the campaign - a series of U-turns, flip-flops and backtracks.

Boris Johnson is seen by many as a serial liar - the £350m a week for the NHS and claims about Turkey during the 2016 Brexit referendum added to a long history which included making up a quote as a journalist and lying about an affair.

Jeremy Hunt’s record is often seen through the Brexit prism - backing Remain, then a second referendum, then becoming a born-again Leaver before defending Theresa May’s deal, and then finally declaring himself ready for no deal.

In a Tory leadership contest in a time of crisis, when scrutiny is intense and detail matters, both candidates have found themselves regularly rowing back on claims, pledges and policies.

Here we have a look at Johnson and Hunt’s flip-flops during the campaign for the keys to Number 10:

Boris Johnson

Brexit

Every detail in the candidates’ Brexit pitches have been pored over by opponents, and both have been found wanting.

Johnson as an ardent Brexiteer and leader of the Vote Leave campaign has been clear about being ready for no deal but has been forced into major climbdowns on the detail.

Driven on by his hard Brexit backers in the European Research Group, Johnson’s first turnaround came when he declared the withdrawal agreement negotiated by May to be “dead”, despite having voted for it on March 29.

In an attempt to balance his coalition of hard Leavers like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Remainers such as Damian Collins, Johnson then used a BBC debate to claim that an obscure piece of trade law, known as GATT24, could give the UK and the EU a “standstill” in trade relations even in the event of no deal, avoiding a disruptive crash-out.

But once the October 31 Brexit deadline changed from “eminently feasible” to “do or die”, again at the behest of the ERG, Johnson came under intense pressure over his plan.

He eventually conceded Britain could not use GATT24 if the EU did not agree, therefore making it impossible in a no-deal Brexit.

Tax and spend

Perhaps Johnson’s most obvious flip-flops have come on domestic policy.

First, a story apparently briefed by his aides that he wanted to give an income tax cut to high earners paid more than £50,000 was downgraded to an “ambition” following a backlash. 

Then Johnson refused to commit to boosting public sector pay, despite his ally Matt Hancock telling the Times he would show workers “some love” if he became PM.

Although aides suggested Hancock may have been freelancing.

Haunted by his past #1

Johnson’s most eye catching U-turns have come on pledges and comments made in his long career in politics and journalism.

He was accused of “thermonuclear hypocrisy” by Led by Donkeys over comments he made about Gordon Brown in 2007.

Following the resignation of Labour’s Tony Blair as PM, Brown took over and refused to call an election.

Johnson was enraged, writing: “It’s the arrogance. It’s the contempt. That’s what gets me. It’s Gordon Brown’s apparent belief that he can just trample on the democratic will of the British people. It’s at moments like this that I think the political world has gone mad, and I am alone in detecting the gigantic fraud.”

He has since ruled out an election until Brexit is delivered, perhaps fearing a mauling at the hands of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, if he becomes PM on July.

Haunted by his past #2

Johnson also once claimed he would lie down in front of bulldozers to prevent a third runway being built at Heathrow, and as foreign secretary avoided a Commons vote on expansion by flying to Afghanistan for a meeting which costs taxpayers thousands of pounds.

But he has since refused to say he would block expansion, telling the BBC’s Tory leadership debate: “I continue to have grave reservations about the Heathrow runway three.

“Not just from the point of view of air quality but also noise pollution as well and I will continue to use all the instruments ... to reduce CO2.

“As you know, court cases are now proceeding and as prime minister I will be following those very closely indeed.”

Jeremy Hunt

Brexit

Maybe unsurprisingly for an ex-Remainer trying to win over a very Brexit-y selectorate of 160,000 Tory members, Hunt has been a bit all over the place on Brexit.

Early in the campaign, he said a Tory leader who embraced a no-deal Brexit would be committing “political suicide” because MPs would either block it in parliament or simply collapse the government and trigger a general election.

Taking a similar position to also-ran candidate Michael Gove, Hunt also said he would be prepared to delay Brexit for an unspecified amount of time beyond October 31, if he thought an improved exit deal was in sight.

He further enraged Brexiteers by branding Halloween a “fake deadline”, before later admitting he should have said “fake promise”.

But with just days to go before ballot papers were posted out to members and with Johnson seemingly far ahead, Hunt on Monday talked tough on Brexit, launching a ten-point plan to get ready for no deal on October 31, which included cancelling civil servants summer holidays.

It’s this kind of flip-flopping which has left Brexiteer opponents branding him “Theresa in trousers”.

Abortion

Hunt sparked outrage after renewing his support for halving the legal time limit for abortions from 24 to 12 weeks.

In a Sky News interview, he did immediately make clear that if he became PM “it won’t be government policy to change the law” or to have a vote on it.

But weeks later he suggested to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he could vote for a backbench attempt to change the law in a private member’s bill.

“How I vote in any future private member’s bill would be a matter of conscience and I would have to see what that bill is before I make that decision,” he said.

On a visit to Northern Ireland this week, Hunt also said he wanted Northern Ireland’s highly tough abortion laws liberalised, but said it would be for the devolved assembly to at least debate the matter first.

The Troubles

The foreign secretary infuriated the Northern Irish DUP, the crucial confidence and supply partners who prop up the Tory minority government, but suggesting British veterans who served in the Troubles and IRA terrorists should be treated “in the same way”.

He also sparked anger among ex-soldiers and a large collection of Tory backbenchers who are campaigning to end prosecutions of Army veterans for their actions in Northern Ireland.

It forced Hunt into a rapid about-turn, insisting there was “no moral equivalence between the actions of terrorists who seek to kill and maim, and soldiers who acted to promote peace and protect the public”.