Winston Churchill's grandson tells Boris Johnson: Start acting like a PM

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Boris Johnson has been criticised by Winston Churchill's grandson
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Winston Churchill's grandson today led a chorus of Tory condemnation of Boris Johnson’s hardline language, telling him: “Start behaving like a Prime Minister.”

Conservative grandee Sir Nicholas Soames accused Mr Johnson of driving the country “further apart” over Brexit.

His warning came after furious clashes between the Prime Minister, below, and opposition MPs last night in the House of Commons, which had been reconvened after the Supreme Court ruled that shutting down Parliament was unlawful.

In key developments today:

  • Sir Julian King, Britain’s EU Commissioner in charge of security, branded Mr Johnson’s language in the Commons “crass and dangerous”.  
  • Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan was sent a death threat overnight after she warned against the use of inflammatory language, the Evening Standard has learned.
  • Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer claimed Mr Johnson’s behaviour showed he did not “genuinely” want to get a new Brexit deal through the Commons.
  • Tory chairman James Cleverly defended Mr Johnson and argued that tensions across the UK would “continue to brew” until Brexit was resolved.
  • At the start of today’s sitting, Commons Speaker John Bercow said the culture in the chamber last night was “toxic” and pleaded with MPs to treat each other as “opponents not enemies”.  
  • Mr Cleverly signalled that Mr Johnson could ignore a possible summons by the London Assembly to give evidence over his links to former model Jennifer Arcuri whose companies benefited from public money.

There was uproar in the Commons last night as the Prime Minister rejected calls to temper his language, including branding anti-no-deal legislation a “surrender act” and saying the best way to honour Jo Cox — the Remainer Labour MP who was murdered during the referendum campaign in 2016 — was to “get Brexit done”.

Tory MP Nicholas Soames, had his whip removed earlier this week, hit out at Boris Johnson
REUTERS

He dismissed as “humbug” Labour MP Paula Sherriff’s claim that like Mrs Cox, many MPs faced death threats from people using the same sort of language as the Prime Minister.

Sir Nicholas, one of 21 Tory MPs stripped of the whip for paving the way for an anti-no-deal Bill, said: “I was frankly absolutely appalled by the whole language and tone of the House yesterday, starting off with the Attorney General’s, in my view, disrespect to the Supreme Court ... not a word of contrition or humility from the Prime Minister.

“I have grown up in a house where I believe the job of the Prime Minister, even under very difficult circumstances, is to try to bring the country together.

“What the Prime Minister did yesterday was to drive it further apart ... I want Boris Johnson to start behaving like a Prime Minister.”

Responding to Mr Johnson’s use of the word “humbug”, EU security commissioner Sir Julian tweeted: “Crass and dangerous. If you think extreme language doesn’t fuel political violence across Europe, incl UK, then you’re not paying attention”

In a direct example of last night’s Commons exchanges fuelling intimidation, Mrs Morgan received a chilling death threat last night.

After Mr Johnson’s speech in the Commons, she tweeted: “At a time of strong feelings we all need to remind ourselves of the effect of everything we say on those watching us.”

Mrs Morgan was sent an anonymous email that said: “We will bring back capital punishment and all of you full fat fascists will be executed on the electric chair. We will ERADICATE all of you alt-right terrorists to make sure you will never again be able to abolish British democracy again.”

A source close to Mrs Morgan said: “Over the last three years there have been at least three people prosecuted for threats against Nicky — often against other MPs too. In the last month Nicky has had a series of abusive emails saying she should be dead which the police are investigating and at least one further serious threat.” One previous message is understood to have told her to “watch out for her assassin” and that she “should die”.

John Bercow in the House of Commons
AFP/Getty Images

Former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb stressed that Mr Johnson had “strong support” among Tory MPs for trying to unblock Brexit.

“But he also has a duty as Prime Minister to try to bring unity to our country and reduce the level of poison in our politics. Words and language really matter,” he added.

Former minister Tobias Ellwood said: “We have the singular, critical and urgent mission to resolve Brexit. A minority government can only achieve this by reaching across the aisle. The language and tone it adopts must reflect this.”

Stephen Kinnock, who is leading Labour MPs willing to strike a Brexit deal with the Government, said: “We can’t have a politics that rediscovers the lost art of compromise if people are using incendiary and inflammatory language.”

Mr Cleverly defended the “do or die” approach of getting Brexit delivered by October 31, saying: “The best way we can take some of the temperature out of this debate is to get this resolved.”

He said he had received death threats himself and he understood the concerns for MPs’ safety. But he rejected claims that terms such as “surrender act” were to blame for divisions.

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