Former Tory leader attacks Johnson’s Brexit plan. Is it because he hadn’t heard Hunt’s?
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt: Is time up for the Conservative Party?
It could be argued that an endorsement from a failed ex-Conservative leader and former schoolboy politician may do Jeremy Hunt more harm than good – but the fact is that neither he nor Boris Johnson have covered themselves in glory.
Business leaders have described both candidates’ willingness to offer a hard ‘no deal’ Brexit in order to leave the EU no later than October 31 as the “height of irresponsibility”, pointing out that manufacturing output has suffered its sharpest fall in six and a half years.
It is possible that William Hague was not aware of this when he penned his Torygraph article. He was attacking only Mr Johnson when he wrote, “the fundamental problem with willingly threatening a no-deal Brexit, or saying it will happen at the end of October, come what may, is that this new prime minister has no guaranteed majority in the House of Commons. Faced with that reality, the grotesque expedient of somehow ignoring a majority in parliament – which would mean at worst an election and, even at best, the complete inability to pass any legislation afterwards – has reared its head.” But that comment could be applied to both of them perfectly adequately.
He wrote: “Boris has demonstrated his strong convictions by saying “do or die” and refusing to rule out the proroguing of parliament. But in doing so, however much I wish him well if he is elected, he has lost my vote, because “do and then die” could very easily be the outcome.”
Hague said he supported Mr Hunt because “I watched him, through one winter after another, deal with the strains on the NHS with steady and unflappable competence. Good humoured and rational in all circumstances, he is definitely someone you want with you in a crisis” – without once noting that every crisis in the National Health Service was caused by disastrous Conservative policies.
He wrote of both candidates: “Behind them is the Brexit party in full cry, threatening electoral calamity if the promised exit hasn’t happened soon. But ahead of them is a no-deal Brexit, with its unknown consequences. It is as if a flock of sheep is running full tilt from the wolves while little realising it might be heading for a cliff.”
That seems accurate, but where he describes these as “immense twin dangers” faced by the Conservatives, he could also be describing both Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson.
As the SNP’s Kirsty Blackman described them, the two Tory candidates could be characterised as the “Thelma and Louise of Brexit”, determined to drive the entire country over a cliff to meet a deadline.
The Tories are in crisis indeed. The cliff-edge is looming, and it seems they are going over it, no matter who they back.
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Hague always was a weird individual, right from the time he made his first appearance at a Tory Party conference. I welcome the fact that these nasty Tories are ripping each other to shreds, but I object to them taking the whole country with them.
I’m not a fan of either of them and neither has a spotless record however Parliament is still busy fighting itself.