Arlene Foster offers top tip to Boris Johnson to salvage No10 position as tensions rocket
ARLENE Foster advised Boris Johnson to reshuffle the Conservative Party if he wants to salvage his position as Prime Minister.
Arlene Foster's tip to Boris Johnson to ensure No10 stay
Arlene Foster urged Boris Johnson to change his support system and surround himself with Tory MPs who are willing to stand by his side through thick and thin. Ms Foster insisted the Prime Minister is in dire need of Tories who are willing to support him when the going gets tough. Being in a position of leadership is “lonely” enough, she admitted, and the last thing Mr Johnson would want is a party that fails to offer productive criticism and bad-mouth him, as she stressed that Mr Johnson needs to choose Tories who are willing to reprimand him in private after a mistake and not just tell him what “he wants to hear”.
Mr Johnson could face a premature exit as Conservative leader after losing a large part of his dressing room, with several of his Tories having reportedly grown exasperated of his fading powers and public gaffes.
The thumping loss in the North Shropshire by-election could prove too much for some Tories who are ready to oust him as soon as possible.
Speaking to Nigel Farage on GB News, Ms Foster pleaded to take his Tories’ criticism on the chin and accept it with “humility” but stressed that it may be time to replace some of them.
She said: “I think the Prime Minister’s reaction was probably the right reaction.
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“The only reaction he could have is to accept the personal responsibility, to accept it with humility and hear what is being said.
“But if he is hearing what is being said he needs to do something.
“I know from personal experience that leadership is a lonely place in that job.
“I know that very, very well. What he needs is a team of very trusted people around him.
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“People who will tell him what is what.
“And not just tell him what he wants to hear but actually what he needs to hear.
“And I think that is what is lacking at the moment.
“I thought it was interesting that Tom was referencing the fact that he doesn’t have this culture of people who would have gone out and battled for him.”
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Northern Irishwoman Foster said that now-former Brexit Minister Lord David Frost would have done just that as his faith in Mister Johnson was out of question.
She then admitted that Mr Johnson’s position may become even lonelier now one of the last remaining supportive Tories called it a day and resigned.
Lord Frost stepped down yesterday due to a growing discontent about the government’s rising taxes and the reintroduction of new COVID-19 measures to ward off the spread of the new Omicron variant.
Lord Frost’s exit was planned for January and he took everyone by surprise when he opted to walk away a couple of weeks in advance with some saying that his premature departure could be interpreted as him laying the foundations for a future as Prime Minister.
But the official reason was that he is understood to be at loggerheads with the government over the direction it intends to take and its vision regarding the implementation of new restrictions.
She said: “Ironically one of those who would have battled for him in the past was David Frost.”