Boris Johnson loyalist retweets dangerous image of Rishi Sunak
One of outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons key loyalists and supporter of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as his successor, who has been very vocal in attacks against Rishi Sunak, was on Sunday facing criticism for retweeting a dangerous and distasteful image of the former Chancellor.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries re-posted a tweet on her social media account showing an image of Johnson dressed as Roman leader Julius Caesar and Sunak stabbing him in the back, a reference to his killer Brutus. Business Minister Greg Hands, who is backing the British Indian ex-minister in the race, told Sky News the post was appalling.
“I do find it distasteful and I do find it, less than a year after the stabbing of our colleague, in very, very poor taste, even verging on dangerous,” he said.
Referring to the stabbing to death of Tory MP Sir David Amess by a constituent last year, he added: “It is not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David… so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even,” But an unnamed ally of Dorries pointed out that it was obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar, photoshopped to provide political commentary.
“Some people of course will want to be wilfully offended,” the ally said.
Dorries has previously attacked Sunaks expensive dress sense as a sign of not being in touch with the British electorate and accused him of leading a ruthless coup against his former boss.
“I am bitterly disappointed that Boris Johnson was removed via a ruthless coup, as he was, led largely by Rishi Sunak, she has said.
It comes as a report in the Observer newspaper claims Sunaks team is being urged to overhaul his general election-style campaign in favour of a grassroots effort, speaking directly to the estimated 180,000 Tory members in a last-ditch attempt to beat Liz Truss to the Conservative leadership. Truss has been leading in the opinion polls and bookmakers odds as the favoured candidate to succeed Boris Johnson.
The vote is very soft, you dont have to do much to move it. Were making this far too complicated. Theres brilliant people in charge, but Im just worried were fighting the wrong campaign, one Sunak supporting Tory MP told the newspaper.
Another MP said: The stuff they have their guys producing is social media stuff for a general election. This is about party members. It should just be about getting Rishi and key supporters to as many members as possible. They are trying to get MPs out for them, but its mainly producing social media graphics.
A third ally said: I do think its looking quite difficult for him but I cant give up hope yet. There are a lot of MPs talking to their associations. Theres still time. It would be preposterous to just go through the motions for the next four weeks.
The postal ballots for the election will start landing at Tory members addresses from next Thursday, with the deadline for receiving completed ballots set as the evening of September 2. The result will be declared on September 5.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
