Hunt Accuses Johnson of Dodging Scrutiny in Race to Lead U.K.

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has signaled he’s ready to fight an aggressive campaign against Boris Johnson in the race to become U.K. prime minister, by accusing him of trying to avoid public scrutiny.

Johnson, who was the comfortable winner among Conservative members of Parliament, achieved this while keeping a very low profile. He has so far given one radio interview, two newspaper interviews and appeared in a single TV debate.

That has allowed him to escape questions about his record or his plans, and Tory MPs who have spoken to him in private have left with wildly different ideas of his intentions around Brexit.

Hunt wrote to Johnson on Friday evening effectively accusing him of hiding from questions. Although there will be 16 hustings featuring the two men, they are only for Conservative Party members, and will feature the candidates one after the other, rather than head-to-head.

Johnson has agreed to one more televised debate on July 9, which is after the ballot papers have gone out to party members.

Uncomfortable Scrutiny

“Scrutiny can be uncomfortable,” Hunt wrote in the letter released to the media. “But if we can’t handle it with friends, we won’t deserve to lead against our opponents.”

Making the case for the two of them to have a series of debates in the coming days, Hunt raised two previous prime ministers who took office with little scrutiny and then struggled in the job.

“Neither Gordon Brown nor Theresa May were tested in this way before they took
the top job and many think it would have been much better for our country if they had,” he wrote. “The stakes are too high to allow that to happen again.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs

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