Johnson And Sunak Clashed 'Early On', Says Spin Doctor

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak clashed very early on” during their time at Downing Street, according to the former prime minister’s ex-spin doctor. Guto Harri said there was continual tension between the pair claiming that Mr Sunak forced through the windfall tax on oil and gas giants against Mr Johnson’s will.

- ADAM FORREST

The former No 10 communications chief has previously alleged Mr Johnson "squared up to" King Charles over the Rwanda policy and called Sue Gray a "psycho".

Continuing to promote his new podcast series on his time at No 10, Mr Harri said that "there was tension very, very early on" between Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak over economic policy. "In a nutshell, basically Boris wanted to give what the party was screaming for, and this explains why Liz Truss walked the leadership election," said the former comms boss, suggesting Mr Johnson's ideas were closer to Liz Truss's than Mr Sunak's.

"Boris wasn't going to give the full Liz Truss, all your Christmases in go. But less regulation, cutting some taxes, not putting up corporation tax," he said. "He didn't want to do the windfall tax. He was ideally keen to see some VAT cuts, not just because it eases the tax burden but because it shows the freedom that you have post-Brexit."

Asked if Mr Sunak forced the windfall tax through, he said: "Yes, pretty much, I think that's fair," said Mr Harri, adding several senior figures in No10 were against it.

The close Johnson ally again defended his former boss over Partygate, claiming that the ex-PM had become a "loner" who hardly drinks alcohol. "I think the most perverse thing about the whole thing is he's about the last person that I know that I would think of as a party animal," he said.