Boris Johnson’s allies have spoken up to defend the under-pressure foreign secretary, saying he was right to accuse Saudi Arabia of waging “proxy wars” in the Middle East, despite Downing Street disowning the remarks.

Several Conservative MPs defended Johnson as he prepares to visit Saudi Arabia and Bahrain this weekend, saying Theresa May should not have been so quick to slap down the gaffe-prone minister.

Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, said: “The reality is that Britain has a complicated relationship with Saudi Arabia and our economic and political interests do not always coincide. In many ways, Saudi is an important ally but we have a duty as their candid friend to warn them about areas of difficulty.”

Sarah Wollaston, the MP for Totnes, tweeted her support for the foreign secretary, criticising Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights. She said: “ Boris was speaking the truth on proxy wars and it’s time for all parties in the region to end the sectarian bloodbath.”

May put the pro-Brexit Johnson in the key role to help secure the support of leavers for whatever deal emerges from the article 50 negotiations, but relations between the pair appear to have become increasingly strained. Some of his allies in parliament are convinced that there is an “orchestrated campaign to undermine him as foreign secretary” by diehard former remain supporters and EU politicians.

May’s spokeswoman said the foreign secretary was setting out his own views on Saudi Arabia and Iran, but would be sticking to the government’s line when he visited Saudi ministers this weekend.

She insisted Downing Street had “full confidence in the foreign secretary”, but said Saudi Arabia was “a vital partner for the UK, particularly on counter-terrorism and, when you look at what is happening in the region, we are supportive of the Saudi-led coalition, which is working in support of the legitimate government in Yemen against Houthi rebels”.

Asked if the prime minister had any sympathy with Johnson’s view of the Yemen conflict, the spokeswoman said : “I’ve set out what the PM’s views are, and those are the foreign secretary’s views; they are not the government’s views on Saudi and its role in the region.”

Johnson privately admits that some of his language on this and other topics may have been too eyecatching, and understands No 10’s determination to reassert the messages from May’s own trip to Bahrain earlier this week. Johnson was in Downing Street for other meetings and no dressing down was delivered .

But Johnson does not resile from his basic belief that the Middle East needs to foster less sectarian leadership, a criticism that he applies to Iranians as much as Saudis. Foreign Office sources also insist that his message has been conveyed frequently in his private meetings in the region.

Johnson and his allies are increasingly frustrated by what they see as a series of public putdowns from May and her allies.

Crispin Blunt, who chairs the backbench foreign affairs committee, suggested Downing Street could have handled it better. “ No 10 would have been wise not to react in quite such a sharp manner,” he said.

The prime minister has twice told jokes publicly at Johnson’s expense, including at an awards ceremony where she compared him to a dog Michael Heseltine had choked, saying, “Boris, the dog was put down … when its master decided it wasn’t needed any more .” The chancellor, Philip Hammond, included a joke about Johnson’s leadership ambitions in his autumn statement speech.



James Cleverly, MP for Braintree, who supported Johnson’s aborted leadership bid before backing May, said the jokes risked undermining the foreign secretary.

“After the incident with the ambassadors [who claimed Johnson still supported free movement in the EU] where it became obvious reports about Boris were fabricated by someone, a number of people who have been doing a bit of gentle ribbing are asking themselves whether it’s in our national interest to continue doing that ,” he said.



Johnson is due to deliver a speech at a conference called the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Friday. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “We welcome Boris Johnson’s honest criticism of Saudi Arabia and ask him to be critical in his keynote speech at the Manama Dialogue tomorrow.

“Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have shown a complete disregard to human rights, with more death sentences and more imprisoned activists and torture than at any other time since the Arab spring. Britain should use its position on the world stage to champion human rights, not sacrifice them for commerce with corrupt countries.”

Johnson’s remarks, published in the Guardian, came at an embarrassing moment for Downing Street, emerging shortly after May returned from a two-day trip to the Gulf where she spoke repeatedly of the closeness of the relationship between the UK and Gulf states.

The foreign secretary had said: “There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That’s one of the biggest political problems in the whole region. And the tragedy for me – and that’s why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area – is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.”

Johnson identified Saudi Arabia and Iran specifically, saying: “That’s why you’ve got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in, and puppeteering and playing proxy wars.”

He will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet government ministers on Sunday, but the prime minister’s spokeswoman would not comment on whether he would apologise. “He will be in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and will have the opportunity to set out the way that the UK sees the relationship with Saudi Arabia, the work we want to do with them and other partners in the region to bring an end to the appalling conflict in Yemen which only last night we saw the humanitarian suffering there,” she said.



The Saudi government understood the official position of the government clearly because the prime minister had set it out to the king in person during a bilateral meeting this week, Downing Street insisted.



Johnson’s remarks in Italy broke a longstanding UK diplomatic convention not to criticise Saudi Arabia in public. The UK has always said the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign in Yemen, aided by UK arms and British military advice, is a legitimate attempt to defend Saudi Arabia’s borders.

In the Saudi capital, Riyadh, concern was expressed at the “mixed signals” being sent by the British after May had delivered a speech in Bahrain underlining the UK’s enduring commitment to the Gulf region.

Opposition politicians seized on the government divisions, but called on the prime minister to engage with Johnson’s criticisms. The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said: “If Boris Johnson keeps getting slapped down by Theresa May every time he states a position, nobody is going to take him seriously when he claims to speak for Britain abroad, and no foreign power is ever going to negotiate with him.‎

“So I agree that Boris should refuse to apologise, but equally, if he does believe that Saudi Arabia is fighting proxy wars in countries like Yemen, with millions of children caught in the crossfire, then why is he happy for Britain to continue selling Riyadh the weapons they are using to fight those wars?

“The government cannot complain about Saudi Arabia’s military actions one minute, then continue selling it the arms to [carry out] those actions the next. We need to see some consistent principle in the UK’s foreign policy, not more shabby hypocrisy.”