Boris Johnson has called on his “so-called friends and allies” to stop briefing newspapers against Theresa May, saying he does not know who the people are, and insisting they do not speak on his behalf.

The foreign secretary’s intervention in a message to a WhatsApp group of Conservative MPs follows an article in the Daily Telegraph on Monday in which unnamed backers of Johnson said he may refuse to move if the prime minister tried to demote him in a reshuffle.



One supposed ally told the paper that moving Johnson would go down “like a bucket of cold sick” with pro-Brexit voters, with one saying there was now a “stench of death” emanating from Downing Street.

In his message, a copy of which was passed to the Guido Fawkes website, Johnson said he did not support such briefings.

“Folks I have seen yet more stuff in the Telegraph and the Sun purporting to come from so-called friends and allies of mine,” the message reportedly read. “I am frankly fed up to the back teeth with all this. I do not know who these people are. I do not know if they are really my friends and allies or if they represent some sinister band of imposters [sic].

“I heartily disagree with the sense, tone and spirit of what they are quoted as saying. Whoever they are they do not speak for me.”

It follows a Conservative party conference in Manchester last week overshadowed partly by tensions sparked by a 4,000-word Brexit manifesto Johnson wrote for the Telegraph.

On the eve of the Tory conference, he intervened again, telling the Sun that any transition period for Brexit should not last “a second more” than two years, and that the UK should not abide by any new EU rules during this period.

Since May’s disastrous speech on the final day of the conference, Johnson has sought to join other ministers in rallying round the prime minister, dismissing calls from the former party chairman Grant Shapps and a handful of backbench Tory MPs for her to face a leadership contest.

Johnson’s claims to loyalty were backed by Crispin Blunt, a pro-Brexit senior Tory backbencher, who said the foreign secretary had supported May in his conference speech and now in the WhatsApp message.

“He’s declaring his loyalty, as he did in his speech, and he’s declaring it privately. And somehow that’s machinations,” Blunt told Sky News.

Of the briefings, Blunt said: “Who are these people? They’re not friends of Boris’s, as far as I’m aware. I’m absolutely certain from what I know that Boris doesn’t want this nonsense to be going on.”

Blunt said May should remain in her job. “It would be a huge disservice to the country if the Conservative party now indulged itself in peering at its navel in a leadership election over the next three month,” he said.

Johnson’s message nonetheless risks again overshadowing May before a statement to the House of Commons by the prime minister about the progress of Brexit on Monday, following her speech in Florence last month.



May is expected to say that Britain has made sufficient concessions in the Brexit negotiations for now. “The ball is in their court. But I am optimistic we will receive a positive response,” she is to tell MPs.

She will add: “So while of course progress will not always be smooth, by approaching these negotiations in a constructive way – in a spirit of friendship and cooperation and with our sights firmly set on the future – I believe we can prove the doomsayers wrong.”

May has full confidence in bothJohnson and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, according to her official spokesman.

The spokesman also pointed reporters towards the prime minister’s suggestion in a Sunday Times interview that she considerd herself to have a “terrific cabinet”.

The comments come as speculation about a reshuffle led to calls from different wings of the Conservative party to remove either Johnson or Hammond.



Some believe the foreign secretary has recently overshadowed the prime minister on Brexit – while Hammond is seen by ardent Brexiters as potentially blocking progress towards Britain’s EU exit.



Asked about Johnson in the newspaper interview, designed to get herself back on the front foot after a difficult party conference, May said it had “never been my style to hide from a challenge”. The comments were widely seen as suggesting she was prepared to demote the foreign secretary.



However, her spokesman said: “The prime minister was talking broadly that she is a woman that doesn’t duck a challenge. She was talking broadly.” He said the challenges she was referring to were delivering a smooth Brexit that works for Britain and tackling injustices in society.

He did not explain why May had made the comments in reply to a question specifically focused on Johnson’s position.

The latest round of Brexit talks begins on Monday, amid expectations that European leaders are unlikely to decide later this month that sufficient progress has been made to move discussions towards a future trading relationship.

Bernard Jenkin, a leading pro-Brexit backbencher, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that May should take a tougher line with the EU.



He said: “She would be cheered to the echo if she was to say: ‘Look, I’ve had enough of this. We’re going to get ready to leave in 2019, we’re going to spend the money we need to be ready to leave in 2019, and if the European Union wants to come back to the table and talk to us about what kind of relationship they want with us in the long term then we’re ready to talk.’

“They’re just stringing us along, and there comes a point where you’ve got to say: look, if you want to talk, we’ll talk, but otherwise we’re going to get ready to leave.”