Prime minister says she does not want cabinet full of yes men and prefers ‘diverse range of voices’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Theresa May has defended her decision not to sack Boris Johnson for making public demands about her Brexit policy, arguing she does not want a “cabinet of yes men”.

Asked why the foreign secretary was still in his job, the prime minister said she was showing strong leadership by having a “diverse range of voices around the cabinet table”.



“Weak leadership is having a cabinet full of yes men,” she said. “Weak leadership is having a team of people who only agree with you.”



May delivered the same line in a range of broadcast interviews after previously demurring on Sunday about whether Johnson was unsackable because he could provoke a leadership challenge.



He has made a series of interventions setting out his own personal blueprint for Brexit and making demands for the transition period, including limiting it to two years and refusing to submit to new rules from the EU during that time.



Asked again on ITV whether he was too dangerous to move, May avoided any direct threat to sack him but stressed that “of course a prime minister makes decisions about who is in their cabinet”.



She also made clear she had seen an advance copy of Johnson’s speech to the Conservative party conference, which is intended to deliver a message about the importance of a “global Britain” after Brexit.



Her interviews come after a range of cabinet ministers and senior Conservatives suggested Johnson needed to make his interventions in private and abide by cabinet collective responsibility.



Jeremy Hunt issued a warning to Johnson on Monday that failure to swing behind May risked opening the door to a Labour government, which he claimed could stop Brexit in its tracks.

The health secretary made the comments to the Guardian after being asked if he feared the foreign secretary was “looking at the top job”.



“What do you think?” replied Hunt, laughing, before adding: “All I would say to anyone who might be eyeing a different job is that Jeremy Corbyn is also eyeing a different job.



“And if they don’t swing behind Theresa, who I think is doing a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances, they will just open the door to Jeremy Corbyn and probably the most dangerous leftwing government this country has ever seen.”

When Philip Hammond, the chancellor, was asked whether Johnson should show more unity, he said: “I think the more we can show unity, the stronger our negotiating position with the European Union would be.”

The Tory Scottish leader, Ruth Davidson, had a further dig at the foreign secretary, saying: “I have a lot of MSPs at this conference – if any of you think about writing anything without telling me that runs counter to Conservative policy, you’re out on your ear because nobody is unsackable.”

Privately, other figures also expressed their frustration. One cabinet member told the Guardian: “Please don’t mention the B word”; another said that the interventions were damaging, but little could be achieved by forcing Johnson out.



Johnson appeared to swing into line again on Monday after making his series of demands about what the transitional period should look like in the Sun just 24 hours before the party’s conference.



The foreign secretary told the BBC’s Newsnight: “Contrary to some of the stuff that I notice has been knocking around in the media, you have a cabinet that is totally united behind every comma, every full stop, every syllable of the prime minister’s excellent Florence speech.”

Conservative activists at fringe meetings appeared supportive of Johnson’s vision for Brexit. When one panel of Tory MPs was asked whether Johnson should be sacked, the audience shouted “no”.