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Jeremy Hunt today launched a blistering attack on Boris Johnson - branding him "disrespectful" and a "coward".

The Tory leadership underdog gave his rival both barrels and told him to "man up" after three days of lurid stories about Mr Johnson's personal life.

Mr Hunt said he wouldn't comment on a domestic row which saw police called to the flat Mr Johnson shares with girlfriend Carrie Symonds on Friday.

But he blasted the frontrunner for ducking scrutiny - including refusing to face a Sky News debate tomorrow night - and said "of course character matters".

And he told him to answer questions on Brexit - amid claims 12 Tory MPs will vote against No Deal and bring down a Boris Johnson government.

Mr Hunt wrote in the Times: "A new prime minister needs the legitimacy of having made his arguments publicly and having them subjected to scrutiny.

"Only then can you walk through the front door of No10 with your head held high instead of slinking through the back door, which is what Boris appears to want."

(Image: AFP/Getty Images) (Image: SWNS.com)

He added "Don't be a coward Boris, man up and show the nation you can cope with the intense scrutiny the most difficult job in the country will involve."

Neighbours called police over a loud argument between Mr Johnson and former Tory PR chief Symonds at her flat.

Mr Johnson has flatly refused to comment on the row as Class War activists turned up outside the south London home.

Friends today claim the pair had four rows in three weeks and that Mr Johnson wants to get back with wife Marina Wheeler.

(Image: PA)

(Image: PA)

Allies of the frontrunner insisted he had already faced last week's five-week BBC debate and will take part in 17 Tory party hustings - albeit with a friendlier crowd.

But Mr Hunt ramped up his attacks this morning in a string of TV interviews - while his rival was nowhere to be seen.

The Foreign Secretary told Sky News: "It is cowardice frankly not to appear in head to head debates against me."

He added: "To run away from difficult media interviews, from head to head debates on TV, he’s been very disrespectful to Conservative Party members.

"As a Prime Minister you’ve got to go into No10 with a mandate, people knowing what it is you’re going to do."

(Image: IAN VOGLER/DAILY MIRROR)

Mr Hunt said it would be "unseemly" to comment on Mr Johnson's personal life and "we’ve all got things in our private life that we don’t want to get into the arena."

But he added: "The gravity of the constitutional crisis we face as a country is so enormous - what people want to know is, what is your solution… what’s the plan?

"Are you prepared to have a general election?"

"It’s very disrespectful to Conservative Party members to avoid all media scrutiny, all head to head debates, so that people actually don’t know exactly what Boris would do if he came into No10 because he’s simply not been prepared to answer those questions."

(Image: Leon Neal)

And Jeremy Hunt backer Alistair Burt went further, telling the BBC: "The public have to make a judgement about an individual’s character, bringing all things together.

"An individual’s character is important and the public have to decide what’s relevant and what isn’t."

Despite the domestic row and a litany of previous scandals, Boris Johnson is still the runaway favourite to enter 10 Downing Street on July 24.

Yet Mr Johnson has been accused of failing to give a cast-iron guarantee that Brexit will happen on October 31.

Instead he told a BBC debate it "must" happen by Halloween and it was "eminently feasible".

(Image: Getty Images)

In his Daily Telegraph column today he wrote: "We must leave the EU on Oct 31 come what may. It will honour the referendum result, it will focus the minds of EU negotiators."

He added: "It is absolutely vital that we keep our eyes on the prize. It has been a long and parching march - but the oasis is finally in sight.

"We are just over four months away from the date on which, by law, we must leave the EU; and this time we are not going to bottle it. We are not going to fail.

"This time we are not going to shrink in fear from the exit, as we have on the last two occasions."

Yet if Mr Johnson does go for No Deal Brexit , his government could collapse within days.

Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood today warned a dozen Tory MPs would back a vote of no confidence in the government to stop No Deal.

That would be enough to unseat the Prime Minister and trigger a general election.

Jeremy Hunt also warned a Boris Johnson government would rapidly collapse, paving the way for Labour to take power.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

"He is going to come to power on a very fragile coalition of people like Matt Hancock who wants no-deal taken off the table, Mark Francois who wants no-deal," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"Sometimes in politics you can fudge and get away with it.

"But in the case of Brexit you are going to have to make decisions immediately, and that very fragile coalition will collapse immediately when you have to make those decisions.

"If that happens we won't have another leadership contest, we will have Jeremy Corbyn in No 10 and there won't be any Brexit at all."

Boris Johnson refused to answer questions on TV and radio today.

But his backer Priti Patel lashed out at the reports of his love life as a "very clear politically-motivated series of attacks".

She said he was "rightly spending his time" engaging with members and "Boris has the right to a private ife. It's right that it's his choice whether he chooses to discuss it publicly."