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Boris Johnson appeared to backtrack on his pledge to cling onto power until the 2030s, as the prime minister faced claim he is “completely delusional” about winning three terms.Speaking in Rwanda about leading the Conservatives into the next election, he said: “Will I win? Yes,” before adding: “At the moment I’m actively thinking about the third term.”Asked at the G7 summit if he was being “delusional” about staying at No 10 until the next decade, the PM played down his remarks – suggesting he had been talking about the long-term ambitions of government.“What I’m saying is this is a government that is getting on with delivering for the people of this country and we’ve got a huge amount to do,” he told reporters as the summit in Germany got under way.No 10 had suggested the prime minister may have been joking with his remarks about a third term, but cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said on Sunday that the PM was serious.The Northern Ireland secretary said Mr Johnson’s desire to look “long term” when it comes to his own leadership “has got to be a good thing” – praising the PM’s “zest”.But Tory MPs hoping to see him ousted him before the next elections were scathing. One former supporter of the PM described his remarks as “completely delusional”.Another MP from a “red wall” seat also told The Observer that he was “showing increasing signs of a bunker mentality, and that never ends well”.Mr Johnson urged Tory MPs plotting to oust him not to focus on the issues he has “stuffed up” after his authority was further diminished by a Cabinet resignation.And he insisted questions over his leadership were now settled after the loss of Wakefield and Tiverton, claiming that the “endless churn” of claims against him were “driving people nuts”.But the attacks keep on coming. Damian Green, who chairs the One Nation caucus of Tory MPs, saying the government had to change “its style and content” – and called on cabinet members with leadership hopes to show their stripes.Former minister David Davis also lashed out at the PM’s claim the only argument of “substance” from his critics was for the UK to return to the EU single market – arguing this is “plainly not true of me, or many others”.Oliver Dowden resigned as Tory party co-chairman, saying he and Tory supporters were “distressed and disappointed by recent events” and telling the PM that “someone must take responsibility”.Speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday morning, Mr Johnson said the “golden rule” was to “focus on what we are doing”.He said the immediate priorities were addressing the cost of living and “making sure that the UK continues to offer the kind of leadership around the world that I know our people want”. More

Government plans to protect a small number of veterans from prosecution will effectively hand an amnesty to IRA terrorists who murdered of hundreds of armed forces personnel, opponents say. They will drive the point home by sending a letter to every MP in Britain, including Boris Johnson, detailing how many people from their own constituency were killed by republican terrorists during the Troubles.The list includes the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings and Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball, the two children killed in Warrington in 1993. New analysis by the House of Common Library suggests those affected by the plans in England, Scotland and Wales will predominantly be the families of servicemen and women killed by the IRA. Of the 567 victims it identified as from mainland Britain, 480 were members of the armed forces, it shows. The government is pushing ahead with plans for an amnesty in a bid to keep its manifesto promise to also protect ex-soldiers from Troubles-era prosecutions.A previous attempt had to be abandoned after lawyers warned a statute of limitations on court cases would also have to apply to IRA members. Instead, ministers last month announced plans for a new ‘truth clause’. Soldiers and terrorists would only be offered immunity from prosecution if they offered details of their crimes. Ministers claim the move will help families discover more about what happened to their loved ones and offer many in Northern Ireland a chance to heal. But a former Conservative Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is among many senior Tories with concerns about the plans. Julian Smith has urged his own government to “pause” the proposals.The effective amnesty has also run into serious opposition in Northern Ireland, where the families of Troubles victims have told Mr Johnson the legislation would be “an affront to all modern standards of decency”. More

Boris Johnson has said he is planning to be prime minister into the 2030s despite Conservative critics plotting to oust him after voters rejected the Tories in a double by-election defeat.The prime minister insisted he was “thinking actively” about fighting the next two general elections to become the longest-serving post-war leader.He urged Tory MPs plotting to oust him not to focus on the issues he has “stuffed up” after his authority was further diminished by a Cabinet resignation.And he insisted questions over his leadership were now settled after the loss of Wakefield and former stronghold Tiverton and Honiton triggered a Cabinet resignation. More

Health secretary Sajid Javid has said he wondered whether he “could have made a difference” had he been aware of his older brother’s physical health problem before he committed suicide.Mr Javid’s brother, Tariq, a 51-year-old supermarket chain boss, took his own life while the Tory minister was serving as home secretary. Opening up about his brother’s death, Mr Javid said he still wonders “maybe I could have made a difference”, adding: “I guess I will never know the answer to that.”In July 2018, Mr Javid’s brother Tariq took his own life at a hotel in Horsham, West Sussex. He had left two suicide notes, including one that told Sylvia, his partner of 15 years, that she should “carry on and enjoy life”. Speaking as he visited the London headquarters of suicide prevention charity Papyrus on Friday, the health secretary said: “This is something that is deeply personal to me – there are too many families that are left incomplete and too much potential has gone unfulfilled.” More

An emotional portrait of the child Boris Johnson painted by the prime minister’s mother is to star in a new exhibition about mental health. The painting called Where is Mama? by the prime minister’s late mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl, will hang in the exhibition, A way from home: Bethlem artists on longing and belonging, at Bethlem Museum of the Mind. The museum’s galleries sit in the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital. The painting tells a story of the difficult time the Johnsons’ experienced when Ms Johnson was separated from her four young children – Boris, Rachel, Leo and Jo. More

Boris Johnson has fuelled Conservative anger that he is leading them to electoral disaster by rejecting calls to change style, while insisting much of the criticism of him “doesn’t matter”.Senior Tories spoke out after the prime minister mocked the idea of him undergoing a “psychological transformation” to recover from disastrous by-election defeats, saying: “That’s not going to happen.”In a defiant interview to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he instead dismissed leading Conservative figures urging him to quit – including former leaders Michael Howard and William Hague – arguing they have no alternative policies.Mr Johnson refused to accept the Partygate scandal lay behind the defeats and said: “As a leader, you have to try to distinguish between criticism that really matters and the criticism that doesn’t.”Alarmed Tory MPs told The Independent that the comments had underlined the reasons why voters had turned their back on the party in Tiverton & Honiton and in Wakefield last week.Alicia Kearns, a member of the 2019 general election intake, said: “It would be a mistake to dismiss the by-election results, and a greater one to seek to blame MPs who were forced to act in order to uphold our conservative values of integrity and rule of law.“Voters sent a clear message, that their sacrifices were treated with contempt and that they will not vote Conservative while that remains the case.”Bob Neill, the respected chair of the Commons justice committee, said: “The leadership of the Conservative Party is a leasehold, not a freehold. Wise leaders never take that for granted.”One senior Tory summed up the party’s plight as “no change, no chance”, adding: “I am not sure shrugging off valid criticism as not mattering is either sensible or likely to instil confidence in colleagues who are wondering can he now accept his mistakes and change direction.”A second called for cabinet ministers to topple Mr Johnson, because he was putting “his own personal interests and ambitions” ahead of the party and the country.“The Conservative party knows precisely where Boris’s leadership is taking us and it is deeply dispiriting that senior figures are not willing to stand up and be counted,” the former minister said.“When this is all over the party will not forget that those who kept him in power long after his time was up.”And the veteran MP Sir Roger Gale pointed to the prime minister being abroad, saying: “He seems to be in denial and out of touch with the reality of what is going on at home.”With the prime minister abroad for eight days, Tory rebels are plotting to seize control of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers in elections next month – a possible route to unseating Mr Johnson.They would then attempt force a rule change to allow another no-confidence vote by the party’s MPs, lifting the bar preventing another challenge for 12 months, until next June.Another vote could then be held in the autumn if the looming contempt inquiry into whether Mr Johnson lied to parliament over the No 10 parties is damning. Andrew Bridgen, another Johnson-critic, said a number of Tories who backed the prime minister in this month’s no-confidence vote had “buyers’ remorse” and “regret that decision”. The MP called for a fresh vote, telling Sky News: “Changing the rules of the 1922 Committee – or even threatening it – is something Boris Johnson did for Theresa May.”Speaking from Rwanda, the prime minister insisted the public wanted to hear about his policies – not what he is “alleged to have done wrong” – saying: “I want to get on with changing and reforming our systems and economy.”Asked, by the BBC, if he accepted he “personally contributed” to the by-election defeats, he replied only that he must “take responsibility for everything that happens on my watch”. When asked what would make him resign, Mr Johnson pointed to any cabinet decision to “abandon” Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion – while accepting that is highly unlikely. “I would accept that I have lost a very important argument and I would go, but I don’t see that,” he admitted.He did receive the “100 per cent support” of the foreign secretary Liz Truss, who insisted the cabinet still backs the prime minister and that “incumbent governments often lose by-elections”. More

A defiant Boris Johnson has turned on Tory opponents demanding he resign, telling them their criticism “doesn’t matter” and they have no policy ideas.Speaking 24 hours after two disastrous by-election defeats, the prime minister refused to accept he “personally contributed” to them through his lawbreaking behaviour in the Partygate scandal.Mr Johnson also made clear he was not capable of some “sort of psychological transformation” to change his character, saying: “I think our listeners will know that’s not going to happen.”Instead, he dismissed senior Conservative figures calling for him to go – including former leaders Michael Howard and William Hague – arguing they are not putting forward any alternative platform.The prime minister claimed the “only argument of substance” made by any of his critics was “for us to go back into the EU single market”. More

A defiant Boris Johnson has turned on Tory opponents demanding he resign, telling them their criticism “doesn’t matter” and they have no policy ideas.Speaking 24 hours after two disastrous by-election defeats, the prime minister refused to accept he “personally contributed” to them through his lawbreaking behaviour in the Partygate scandal.Mr Johnson also made clear he was not capable of some “sort of psychological transformation” to change his character, saying: “I think our listeners will know that’s not going to happen.”Instead, he dismissed senior Conservative figures calling for him to go – including former leaders Michael Howard and William Hague – arguing they are not putting forward any alternative platform.The prime minister claimed the “only argument of substance” made by any of his critics was “for us to go back into the EU single market”. More