Lord Heseltine "Stupefied" By ldea Boris Johnson Would Refuse To Leave Downing St

6 October 2019, 12:58 | Updated: 6 October 2019, 13:03

The former Deputy Prime Minister thinks the idea that Boris Johnson could "squat" in Downing Street, even if he is unseated by MPs, is "mad".

A headline in the Sunday Times this morning read: "Sack me if you dare,’ Boris Johnson will tell the Queen"

Lord Heseltine told Andrew Castle: "I stood silent, stupefied, when I saw the headline in the Sunday Times this morning."

He added: "I think this is across the thresh-hold of insanity."

Andrew Castle asked: "Where does this come from?"

Heseltine responded: "Where does any of this come from? Who is running the country?

He continued: "What this really means is that No 10, a defeated prime minister, is going to take on the courts, he's going to take on Parliament, he's going to take on the police, he's going to defy the constitution and, of course, in the context, he's going to involve the Queen in a constitutional row. The like of which none of us have ever dreamt of seeing."

He said that it has "come from the control centre behind the Boris machine".

Andrew Castle asked: "Is it another plank in an election strategy?"

Heseltine responded: "Yes, this is true. As I said in the House of Lords this week, from day one the whole strategy has been to mix up Brexit with hard right populist policies appealing to what he thinks will be a Conservative electorate. My own guess is he's got in wrong because literally millions of people are not going to vote for that particular line."

Could this actually happen, asked Andrew.

Heseltine doesn't think so. He explain that "there would be recourse to the courts and my guess is the courts would support Parliament and not the ex-prime minister".

He then said: "There are huge forces brought into play by this ludicrous idea that a discredited and sacked prime minister can go on wielding power."