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Boris Johnson described Tory backbenchers as “spineless chicken s***” for repeatedly criticising his top adviser Dominic Cummings, the former head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs has claimed.
In a memoir about his time leading the powerful committee of backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady has laid bare the backroom deals behind the most turbulent decade in Tory history.
In a telling extract about the former prime minister, Lord Brady has detailed how Mr Johnson was so irritated by criticism of Mr Cummings’ infamous lockdown-breaking Barnard Castle trip that he dubbed Conservative MPs “spineless chicken s***”.
Lord Brady claimed he said: “I think backbench MPs have been contemptible! They have been spineless chicken s***. They need to develop some backbone.”
He said when he told Mr Johnson “no sane person would drive their wife and small child 30 miles to test his eyesight”, the then PM replied: “He’s not sane.”
Lord Brady added that Mr Johnson repeatedly railed against anti-Covid measures, including criticising the “stupid f***ing two-metre rule” and “f***ing scientists”.
His book, Kingmaker, also reveals several attempts by Tory MPs to oust sitting prime ministers, including Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid trying to get rid of Theresa May during Brexit negotiations.
Mr Hunt then went on to tell Lord Brady that Liz Truss had to quit, shortly after he was appointed as her chancellor. Ms Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister of the UK, was gone six days later after a brief talk with Lord Brady.
In the book, being serialised by The Daily Telegraph, Lord Brady also claimed that during a series of scandals involving MPs in 2014, David Cameron told him: “The fact is, a lot of politics is just s***: it’s choosing the least bad option. Life would be easier if colleagues paid their expenses on time and didn’t snort coke and sodomise each other.”
And Lord Brady claimed that David Cameron and George Osborne had contempt for those who did not share their backgrounds.
Through his 14-year stint as chairman of the 1922 Committee, Lord Brady saw the departures of five Tory prime ministers, and was responsible for telling prime ministers when they had lost the confidence of the Tory parliamentary party.
He was the MP for Altrincham and Sale West from 1997 until July’s general election, and is now a member of the House of Lords.
Current 1922 chairman Bob Blackman is overseeing the ongoing Tory leadership contest.
Lord Brady’s book also denied speculation Rishi Sunak was forced to call a general election to avoid a vote of no confidence being forced by Tory MPs.
A rumour had emerged that Lord Brady had received “around 50” of the 53 letters of no confidence required to trigger a ballot, but, in an extract published in The Telegraph, he said: “A rumour spread that Rishi had called the election because I had told him that he was about to face a confidence vote. I had given no such indication. As we headed off towards the smoke of battle, there were 10 letters sitting in my safe.”
