Boris Johnson is a coward for disrespecting Tory members by ducking questions and live debates, rival Hunt blasts
BORIS Johnson is disrespecting Tory members by ducking questions and debates, his leadership rival Jeremy Hunt has blasted.
The Foreign Secretary said his rival was being a coward and running scared of proper scrutiny of his Brexit plans.
Today it was revealed that Sky would cancel their debate for a one-on-one clash between the pair tomorrow if Boris continued to decline to take part.
Mr Hunt demanded Boris step up and face the music days after police were called to the home he was sharing with girlfriend Carrie Symonds following reports of a blazing row.
He told Sky News today: “It’s very disrespectful to Conservative party members to avoid all media scrutiny and head-to-head debates.
“You can’t become PM without answering different questions you’re going to have answer on day one.
“Sometimes in politics you can fudge, but on Brexit you can’t.
“The new prime minister will have a new mandate and spell out exactly what they want to do.”
But he refused to comment further on the remarks about his private life, saying only it was a matter for him.
A spokesman for Mr Hunt’s campaign added today: “Trying to duck debates and run down the clock until after postal ballots have been returned is just cynical and complacent. Boris Johnson must stop trying to slink into No 10 through the back door and come clean about his programme for government.”
Another source added: “Bottler Boris and his complacent campaign have shown they can’t trust their candidate to turn up and perform.”
Mr Hunt is furious with the frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest for repeatedly avoiding public scrutiny.
Boris’s latest media snub is to pull out of a Sky News head to head between the two men on Tuesday night.
Boris has agreed to only two face-to-face confrontations with Mr Hunt over the next four weeks until the decision of the 160,000 Tory members is declared on July 22.
But Boris’ team said he’s signed up to 18 hustings, and a head-to-head debate with Mr Hunt on ITV and with The Sun.
Boris supporter Priti Patel told Radio 4 that he is undergoing “plenty of scrutiny” from the media and had a BBC debate just last week.
But on Good Morning Britain Mr Hunt faced intense scrutiny on why he wanted to lower the limit for abortions to 12 weeks.
“It’s a personal view,” he told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
“It’s nothing to do with what I want to do as PM. I didn’t seek to change the law, that’s why my view is there.
“It’s not relevant.”
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