Boris Johnson said Rishi Sunak “refused to engage” with him on kick-starting the UK economy after lockdown because the chancellor wanted to be PM, according to an extract from Nadine Dorries’ book.
According to the extract in the Mail, Mr Johnson told Ms Dorries: “Looking back, I can see that’s because there was a plan to remove me, and people were saying to him: ‘Don’t give him anything.
’He had been given the impression by someone that he should simply bide his time as chancellor until the bigger prize became his.”
It comes as Mr Johnson referred to the Treasury as the “pro-death squad” during the pandemic, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard today.
Reading from former chief scientific adviser to the Government Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary, where the phrase was noted, counsel to the inquiry Dermot Keating said: “There is an entry... at a meeting on 25 January 2021 the PM is recorded saying he wants Tier 3 March 1, Tier 2 April 1, Tier 1 May 1 and nothing by September.
“And he ends it by saying the team must bring in the pro-death squad from HMT”.
