Boris Johnson says Nigel Farage played a “significant” role in “destroying” the Tories – while also attacking those who ousted him from Number 10 in 2022.
Conservatives resisted a crushing defeat in the general elections with numerous big name victimswhile Labor secured a landslide victory.
UK Reform secured five seats in the House of Commons, including one for its leader, Mr Farage, who managed to get elected in Clacton, Essex.
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Former Prime Minister Mr Johnson dissected his party’s performance in his Daily Mail column, saying the reasons why the Conservatives lost so many MPs were “complex” – but “the Yucatán asteroid in this catastrophe was obvious: it was the Reformation”.
Johnson said he had heard from a Tory MP who “fully expected to win” but realized at the last minute that “thousands” of Tory voters were opting for reform, which in turn gave Labor a majority over both rivals.
“Repeat this phenomenon across the political landscape and we will begin to understand the cause of the landslide,” he added, before turning his attention to Farage.
He wrote: “I fear that the cigar-smoking Pied Piper of Clacton has played a significant role – as he no doubt intended – in the destruction of the Conservative government.”
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Johnson then offered advice to the Tories, while also alluding to his own departure from Downing Street in June 2022.
“When we come back, don’t be too quick to get rid of the election-winning leaders,” he said.
“As I never tire of telling people, some polls put us just two or three points behind, in the days before I was forced to resign, in what was really a media-driven uproar.”
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Johnson resigned as prime minister after a wave of controversies, including partygate and its handling of the Chris Pincher scandalwith the latter requesting more than 50 layoffs of the government payroll.
Another conservative figure firmly placed the blame for the general election results on Johnson and his successor Liz Truss.
Speaking on Sky News, Conservative peer Lord Patten said: “This is the oldest party in democratic history and now it has been reduced to rubble by terrible fractures and appalling policies and the collapse of any sense of values.
“It wasn’t ruined by Rishi Sunak. It was ruined by people like Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and others.”
Like Sir Keir Starmer and the Labor Party establish yourself in governmentthe Conservatives face a leadership election after Rishi Sunak announced his resignation.
The candidates have not yet officially declared whether they will run to replace Sunak, but The deputies expected to present themselves include former ministers Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and James Cleverly.
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