The sister of Boris Johnson has claimed that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is a "Prime Minister in waiting" during a damning assessment of Liz Truss and her government. The comment came hours after Truss stepped down as Prime Minister on Thursday, bringing her tumultuous 45 days in Number 10 to a close and making her the shortest-serving British leader of all time.
The outgoing PM quit after a crunch meeting with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, following a shambolic week in government which saw her flagship economic policies scrapped and the Home Secretary and Chief Whip resign amid chaotic scenes and accusations of "manhandling" during a crucial vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Following her resignation, journalist and author Rachel Johnson appeared on a special edition of BBC Question Time, where she tore into the "irreparably split" Conservative party, and claimed that Starmer "looks and sounds like a Prime Minister", while also dodging questions about her brother's future. Get the latest political news from WalesOnline sent straight to your inbox for free by signing up to our newsletter.
Asked if she thought Starmer would make a "credible Prime Minister", Johnson replied: "Of course he would. He looks like a Prime Minister, he sounds like a Prime Minister. At the moment he is Prime Minister in waiting as the polls stand isn't he? He's, what, 30 points ahead?
"So all he's got to do as far as I can see is not spook the markets anymore. When the next Prime Minister comes in, they can get rid of Jeremy Hunt if he or she so desires, but the real boss is the bond markets. So that's what Keir's got to look at when he lays out, which he will, his economic plan and his manifesto going into the next election."
Earlier in the programme, Johnson dodged questions from host Fiona Bruce about the prospect of her brother running in the leadership election which was triggered by Truss' resignation. In the hours following her announcement, it was suggested that Boris Johnson is understood to be seriously considering joining the race to replace the outgoing PM.
Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt are both also seen as contenders, while other names touted include James Cleverly, Ben Wallace and ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who quit the government just 24 hours before Truss did. However, new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ruled himself out of contention.
Asked what she could reveal about the likelihood of her brother running for the Tory leadership again, the Ms Johnson responded: "I have no comment on that. I know nothing." Fellow panellist and Labour MP Jess Phillips couldn't resist chiming in: "I have plenty of comments on that."
When pressed by Bruce later in the programme, she said it was "really unfair" for her to be asked about her brother, adding: "He may be a family member, but I'm not one of the 357 remaining Tory MPs who are going to decide who gets in and I'm not a member of the Conservative Party, so I will not influence the outcome."
She added: "What would it make you really happy for me to say?", before dodging the question further, telling Tory MP Graham Stuart: "[It's] like when a debutante met a lot of men, a suitable husband would emerge. We can all trust the Tory party, given recent events, to come up with the best candidate to lead the country forward and restore its reputation for economic competence and financial stability, eh Graham?"
Johnson also couldn't resist poking fun at Liz Truss following her resignation, as she claimed that a lettuce was the Tory party's most successful politician at the moment. With the writing on the wall for Truss for several days, the Daily Star predicted her downfall by starting a livestream of a 60p lettuce on October 14 to see if it would outlast the struggling PM despite having a shelf life of just 10 days - and it won.
"The only thing uniting the Tory party is terror of a general election," she said. "Because even if Margaret Thatcher came back reincarnated with Mother Teresa in her handbag, she could not win this election for the Tories now."
She added: "I mean, don't forget that the most successful Tory politician of the moment is a lettuce, that has just outlasted Liz Truss in office!"
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