I WANT 10 MORE YEARS IN POWER, VOWS BORIS

Bullish PM fights back and hints he may slash VAT from energy bills

- Martyn Brown, David Williamson and Jonathan Walker

BORIS Johnson revealed he is eyeing up 10 more years in Number 10 as he hinted at tax cuts to help families struggling with energy bills.

The Prime Minister insisted he would fight and win the next general election, giving him a second full term in power, despite last week’s by-election defeats which have stoked further speculation about his leadership.

And he added: “I am thinking actively about the third term and you know, what could happen then.” Making it clear he is planning far ahead, he said: “This is the mid-2030s.”

The Prime Minister was speaking yesterday on his visit to Rwandan capital Kigali where he defended Government proposals to send asylum seekers to the African nation. The first planned flight was halted after an interim injunction from the European Court of Human Rights but Mr Johnson said he is “confident” the scheme will go ahead.

Tory MPs are plotting to change internal Conservative Party rules so that they can hold a second vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, after he survived a bid to remove him earlier this month.

They claim the number of colleagues who want Mr Johnson gone has grown after the by-election losses in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton.

Supporters believe a second confidence vote is unlikely, however, while Mr Johnson said the by-elections showed voters want the Government to focus on issues such as the cost of living crisis.

He said: “I think that actually people were fed up of hearing about things I had stuffed up or allegedly stuffed up or whatever – this endless, completely legitimate, but endless churn of news about one particular type of news about one type of thing.