- Johnson of the United Kingdom does not expect a new leadership challenge
- Johnson wants three terms to tackle regional inequality
- The British prime minister is under pressure from losses in polls after the leadership vote
- The prime minister declined to comment on a 150,000-pound tree house for a son
KIGALI, June 25 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he was aiming to stay in power until the middle of the next decade, despite calls to leave, making him the country’s longest-serving leader in 200 years.
Earlier this month, Johnson survived a vote of confidence by Conservative MPs, in which 41% of his colleagues in parliament voted to remove him and he is under investigation for deliberately misleading parliament.
On Friday, Conservative candidates lost two by-elections held to replace former Conservatives who had to step down, one after being convicted of sexual violence and the other after watching pornography in the House of Commons.
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Defeats in the midterm elections suggest that the broad voter appeal that helped Johnson win a large parliamentary majority in December 2019 may fall apart following a scandal over illegal parties held on Downing Street during the coronavirus blockade.
Under the Conservative Party’s rules, its lawmakers cannot formally challenge Johnson for another year, but huge discontent or the resignations of a number of senior ministers could make his position untenable.
Britain is also in the midst of its deepest crisis in the cost of living in decades, with inflation peaking at 40 years.
Former party leader Michael Howard said on Friday that it was time for Johnson to leave, and Conservative Chairman Oliver Dowden resigned after losing the by-elections.
However, Johnson said he wants to serve a third term and remain prime minister until the mid-2030s to give him time to reduce regional economic disparities and make changes to Britain’s legal and immigration system.
“I am currently thinking actively about the third term and, you know, what could happen then. But I will review it when I get to it,” Johnson told reporters in Rwanda on the last day of his visit to the British community summit.
Asked what he meant, Johnson said, “Regarding the third term … it’s the mid-2030s.”
Johnson is due to call the next national election in Britain by December 2024 and will need a third election victory by 2029.
If he were still in office after the start of 2031, he would surpass Margaret Thatcher’s record as the longest serving British prime minister after Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, who served from 1812 to 1827.
NO CHALLENGE, NO CHANGE?
Johnson told reporters he did not expect to tackle another internal challenge within his party and blamed the defeats in the midterm elections in part for months of media reports about parties blocking the heart of the government.
“People were tired of hearing about things I had stuffed, or supposedly stuffed, or whatever, this endless – completely legitimate, but endless – stream of news,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Johnson told BBC radio that he rejected the idea that he should change his behavior.
“If you say you want me to undergo some kind of psychological transformation, I think our listeners will know that this … isn’t going to happen.”
Johnson declined to comment on a report in The Times that he planned to find a donor to fund a 150,000-pound tree house ($ 184,000) for his son at a state-sponsored residence in the countryside.
The story comes months after his party was fined for failing to report an exact donation that helped fund the renovation of his Downing Street apartment.
“I will not comment on non-existent sites,” Johnson said when asked if he planned to use donor money to build the tree house.
(1 dollar = 0.8155 pounds)
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Report by Andrew Makaskil Edited by David Millikon and Helen Popper
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