Boris Johnson faced a backlash from conservative lawmakers on Sunday after announcing he wanted to continue as prime minister in the 2030s.
Speaking in Rwanda at a summit of British government governments, Johnson said on Saturday that he was “thinking actively” about his government’s third term.
Asked if he wanted to run for a second term by 2029, given that the next general election is expected in 2024, Johnson said: “I am currently actively thinking about a third term and you know what could happen then. . . it’s the mid-2030s. “
The leadership of Johnson’s Conservative Party was plunged into new turmoil on Friday after the Tories suffered crushing defeats in the parliamentary by-elections in Wakefield in West Yorkshire and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon.
The results are seen in part as a verdict on Johnson’s behavior in the party scandal. In April, he became the first incumbent British prime minister found to have committed a crime after police fined him for attending a Downing Street birthday party during a blockade of Covid-19.
Johnson survived a vote of no confidence in his leadership this month, but 41 percent of Conservative lawmakers refused to support him.
At the British community summit, he said he would focus on helping the British in the cost of living crisis and continue with his planned reforms, but also insisted that he would not “undergo any psychological transformation”.
Over the weekend, several Conservative MPs, who are critics of Johnson, expressed concern that his latest comments would only inflame relations with the parliamentary party.
“Johnson has a monumental belief in himself, but he has lost touch with reality,” said one senior Tory MP. “He must be returned to earth soon.”
Another MP said Johnson’s focus should be on delivering votes now, rather than preparing for scenarios in a few years. “We can’t go on like this,” he added. “We keep promising and promising, but we don’t give anything to our voters.”
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A third lawmaker said Johnson’s comments could repel the public. “For those members of the electorate who do not like him, it simply stimulates their determination to vote against him and therefore against the Conservative Party,” he added.
Johnson made a provocative note when he was pressured to comment on his three terms as prime minister.
Asked if his remarks were misleading, he replied to the G7 summit in Bavaria: “What I am saying is a government that is doing its duty to the people of this country and we have a lot of work to do. ”
Brandon Lewis, secretary of Northern Ireland, said Johnson was serious about three terms. “We as politicians, especially when you are in government, are often criticized for making decisions in view of next week, the next election, next year, and not in the long run,” he told the BBC.
Immediately after the results of the by-elections, Conservative President Oliver Dowden resigned, saying that someone “should take responsibility” and the Tories could not continue with “business as usual.”
Some Conservative lawmakers are expected to push for a second no-confidence vote against Johnson, although the party’s rules, monitored by the Tory Commission in 1922, stipulate that another vote cannot be held in one year.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said last week that he would run in the 1922 executive election in the coming days with a manifesto to change the rules to allow a new vote this year.
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