Since Boris Johnson announced on Friday he was quitting as an MP, the condemnation has been widespread – and not just from his own party. A number of Conservatives have expressed anger, relief or both at his departure from parliament – some in coded words, others more directly. Rishi Sunak When it comes to honours and Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do, because I didn’t think it was right. That was to either overrule the Holac [House of Lords appointments] committee or to make promises to people. Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. As I said, I didn’t think it was right. And if people don’t like that, then tough.
Tim Loughton (MP and former minister) My hopes for the future of Boris Johnson is that he will shut up and go away and let us get on with the business of running the country. Tobias Ellwood (MP and former minister) Johnson has departed in his own style, kicking and screaming with so much drama, inflicting damage as he goes … His actions are akin to mutiny. Penny Mordaunt (leader of the Commons) We have to be really strong about people who are attacking institutions, people who are attacking the House for carrying out its work, people who are attacking the media. The price of not doing so is going to be very grave indeed. Grant Shapps (energy secretary) On Johnson’s disagreement with Sunak over peerages: Occasionally Boris wouldn’t be all over the detail – I don’t know if that’s what happened in this particular case … I think the world has moved on from what was quite a dramatic period under Brexit and of course under the issues related to Covid, the vaccines and the rest of it. Michael Gove (communities and housing secretary) Boris’s decision to step down means that he’s no longer a member of parliament, and life moves on. David Davis (MP and former cabinet minister) The truth of the matter is, ask around parliament, ask most of the MPs, most people are fairly sure he misled the house. Michael Heseltine (peer and former Tory deputy leader) No doubt he will now go out into the world and make huge sums of money, writing history as he thinks it was conducted. But it will have little to do with the reality of the mess he left behind. Unnamed senior Tory MP The pantomime has to end. He has to be stopped by whatever means and the sooner the better.