Dan Wootton: Let’s not forget what John Major’s attack on Boris is really about - undermining Brexit

Dan Wootton: Let’s not forget what John Major’s attack on Boris is really about - undermining Brexit
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Dan Wootton

By Dan Wootton


Published: 10/02/2022

- 21:25

Step forward Mr John Major. As a former Prime Minister, at 78-years of age, he should be a statesman-like figure.

One of the tragedies of Remoanerism is that its main proponents have so much bitterness running through their veins and seeping into their souls about the biggest democratic mandate in British history that they lose all sense of perspective, all sense of democracy and all sense of what’s right.

Step forward Mr John Major. As a former Prime Minister, at 78-years of age, he should be a statesman-like figure.


Instead, his bitterness over Brexit has turned him into a political attack dog. And his number one target is the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with whom he has had a 30-year feud leading to this unsavoury vendetta.

The usual suspects in the mainstream media lapped up Major’s highly politicised speech criticising Boris for all manner of things today.

But for me, it made him look like an obsessed opponent who would rather a socialist Labour party be running the country – simply because Keir Starmer attempted to overthrow democracy too.

What a sad spectacle. To be honest, I struggle to see John Major as conservative anymore, given he slammed the Daily Mail and Priti Patel’s attempts to stop illegal Channel migrant crossings today, while bigging up the biased BBC.

But, given his criticism of Boris, it’s important to remind ourselves of Major’s rank hypocrisy on so many issues. Of course, he infamously launched his ‘back to basics’ campaign intent on restoring traditional values as PM.

Which was all slightly ironic, given his own personal life included a famous four-year affair in the 1980s with Edwina Currie that he hid from his wife – and his government was brought down by Tony Blair in 1997 following a succession of sleaze stories.

Major – who once privately said of his predecessor Margaret Thatcher: “I want her destroyed.” – was furious with the Iron Lady’s criticism of his reign.

He later moaned… “It was a unique occurrence in our party’s history: a former prime minister openly encouraging backbenchers in her own party, many of whom revered her, to overturn the policy of her successor.”

How ironic, given today’s intervention.

Of course, it’s Europe that’s at the heart of all of Major’s fury.

But like Keir Starmer, Major called for a so-called people’s vote to overturn the EU referendum result – even though he signed Britain up to the Maastricht Treaty without one.

Major criticised Boris again today for proroguing parliament.

That’s also total hypocrisy, given Major prorogued proceedings in 1997 two weeks early ahead of the general election because of the “cash for questions” scandal.

Look, Mr Major can attack Boris all he wants and the BBC will lap it up, just as they have today.

I think it’s unbecoming for a former Tory Prime Minister. But we know what this is all about: Undermining Brexit. Never forget that.

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