Boris Johnson is hoping to be prime minister for another decade as he aims to outlast Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s 11-year tenure in No 10, newspaper reports have claimed.
The Times said that Johnson wanted to build a legacy, with a view that reforms to the NHS and social care – through a rise in national insurance – announced this week playing a part in that.
And the newspaper reported that Johnson, who became prime minister in 2019, wanted to fix the economy and use Brexit in the next election, expected in 2024.
One Cabinet member reportedly told The Times: “Boris will want to go on and on. The stuff Dom (Cummings) was saying about him going off into the sunset was nonsense. He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.”
Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings had alleged that the PM would not last in Downing Street as he wished to make more money.
He claimed Johnson planned to step down to “make money and have fun” within two years after the next election.
The Times quoted Johnson as saying, in an upcoming book by Financial Times journalist Sebastian Payne: “I do think the risk is if we were to be stopped, if we were to be pushed out, the whole thing will slump back.
“We will be back into half of the things of the European Union before we could say it.”
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