- Johnson of the UK does not expect a new leadership challenge
- Johnson wants three terms to address regional inequality
- The British Prime Minister pressured by the losses of the polls after the leadership vote
- The Prime Minister refuses to comment on the £ 150,000 tree house for the son
KIGALI, June 25 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that his goal was to stay in power until the middle of the next decade, despite calls for his resignation. would become the longest leader in the country in 200 years. .
Earlier this month, Johnson survived a vote of confidence by Conservative lawmakers in which 41% of his parliamentary colleagues voted to oust him, and he is under investigation for intentionally misleading Parliament.
On Friday, Conservative candidates lost two by-elections held to replace former Conservative incumbents who had to resign, one after being convicted of sexual assault and the other for viewing pornography in the House of Commons.
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The midterm defeats suggest that the broad voter appeal that helped Johnson win a large parliamentary majority in December 2019 may be breaking down after a scandal over illegal parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus blockages.
Under the rules of the Conservative party, its lawmakers cannot formally challenge Johnson for another year, but overwhelming dissatisfaction or the resignations of a number of senior ministers could make his position untenable.
The UK is also in the midst of its deepest cost-of-living crisis in decades, with inflation at the peak of 40 years.
Former party leader Michael Howard said Friday it was time to leave Johnson and Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned after losing the by-election.
However, Johnson said he wanted to hold a third term and remain prime minister until the mid-2030s to give him time to reduce regional economic disparities and make changes to British legal and immigration systems.
“Right now I’m actively thinking about the third term and, you know, what could happen then. But I’ll check it out when I get there,” Johnson told reporters in Rwanda on the last day of a visit to a Commonwealth summit. . .
When asked what he meant, Johnson said, “About the third term … that’s in the mid-2030s.”
Johnson is due to call the next UK national election in December 2024 and would need a third election victory in 2029.
If he were still in office beyond early 2031, he would break Margaret Thatcher’s record as the longest-serving British Prime Minister since Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, who was in office from 1812 to 1827.
NO CHALLENGE, NO CHANGE?
Johnson told reporters he did not expect to have to fight another internal challenge from his party, and blamed the partial election defeats in part for months of reporting to the blocking party media in the heart of the government.
“People were fed up with hearing things I had stuffed, or supposedly stuffed, or whatever, this endless, completely legitimate, but endless, news series,” he said.
Earlier Saturday, Johnson told BBC radio that he rejected the idea that he should change his behavior.
“If you’re saying you want some kind of psychological transformation to happen, I think our listeners would know that this … won’t happen.”
Johnson declined to comment on a report in The Times newspaper that he had planned to get a donor to fund a £ 150,000 ($ 184,000) tree house for his son at his state-provided country residence.
The story comes months after his party was fined for failing to accurately report a donation that helped fund the renovation of his Downing Street apartment.
“I won’t comment on non-existent objects,” Johnson said when asked if he planned to use a donor’s money to build the tree house.
($ 1 = £ 0.8155)
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Report by Andrew MacAskill Edited by David Milliken and Helen Popper
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