London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

Boris Johnson general election victory would be ‘disaster’, says Chris Patten

Boris Johnson general election victory would be ‘disaster’, says Chris Patten

Former Conservative party chair says decision by Tory MPs to keep Johnson as leader was ‘terrible weakness’
It will be a “disaster” for the country if Boris Johnson wins the next general election, a former chair of the Conservative party has said as he called Tory MPs’ decision to keep him as leader a “terrible weakness”.

Chris Patten said that if the prime minister remained in post, it would “hasten the breakup” of the United Kingdom and result in Scotland being more likely to pursue independence.

Patten condemned the “seediness and mendacity of this government”, adding that because Labour was still hindered by “fundamental weaknesses”, many people had been “left with an aspiration for a decent, competent, generous-spirited, sensible political force in the middle, which nobody at present is providing”.

After Johnson survived a confidence vote but was opposed by 41% of his own MPs in a private ballot, Patten said it had shown “a terrible weakness of my party”.

Speaking to LBC radio, he said it was “really sad that the Conservative party is split between Brexit rightwing Conservatives and others” and that Johnson’s every move seemed to be determined by his motivation to appease the former group.

Patten refused to say if he hoped the Conservatives would win the next election, but said: “I think for me the Conservatives, unless they change very radically, winning the next election would be a disaster for them and for the rest of us.

“Because I don’t think we have a Conservative party at the moment, we have an English nationalist government, with all the consequences and one which you can’t trust.”

Patten said of his preferred outcome at the next general election: “I would prefer to see probably a coalition which held the union together, because I think that’s really in threat. [If] you want to break up the union, you send Boris Johnson up to Scotland.”

Pointing to the government’s approach to the BBC, Patten said that ministers were threatening the broadcaster and “trying to box the BBC into giving special favours, in the way the news is treated, to the government”.

He added: “We should have nothing to do with it and we should make a real fuss about it. And it is the sort of issue that would make old-fashioned Tories like me want to throw up and want to see the end of this government.”

Patten, who is a Conservative peer and served as party chair during part of John Major’s administration, also said Brexiters had tried to distance themselves from the consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU.

He lamented the role played by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is the Brexit opportunities minister.

Though Johnson’s standing was severely wounded after the confidence vote earlier this month, he has vowed to fight on and lead the Conservatives into the next election.

He is now immune to another vote of no confidence for 12 months – though Tory MPs in charge of setting the rules who sit on the 1922 Committee may consider shortening the period to as little as six months, meaning another vote could be held around Christmas.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×