Having had a hand in destroying or diminishing the careers of so many conservative politicians in Australia, sacked former prime minister and current Liberal MP for Warringah, Tony Abbott, has been forced to turn his gaze overseas......
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
28 October 2018:
London: Tony Abbott
secretly met with Boris Johnson two weeks before writing an incendiary article
savaging Theresa May's beleaguered Brexit plan, it can be revealed.
The British Prime
Minister faces daily leadership speculation and a growing rebellion by
Brexiteer MPs and the party's grassroots who fear she will not make a clean
enough break from Brussels.
In his piece
for The Spectator magazine this week, Mr Abbott accused Mrs
May of toying with "surrender" unless she is prepared to go through
with crashing Britain out of the European Union with no deal, a scenario
remainers believe would have catastrophic consequences and even
strident leavers concede could cause the ports to "seize up." Mr
Johnson, the former British foreign secretary who is widely considered to be
planning a tilt for Mrs May's job, has used the same word to describe her
approach to Brexit.
Mr Abbott's meeting with
Mr Johnson, kept secret by both parties until now, has been exposed by a Labour
MP whom Tony Abbott confided in, not realising he was a Labour and not a Tory
MP.
Stephen Doughty
told The Sun-Herald he was in Oxford on October 4 when he bumped into
Mr Abbott in the street. The former prime minister told him he had just had
some "good meetings" with "your man Boris", not realising
Mr Doughty is a strong remainer and campaigning for a second referendum…..
“Boris Johnson meets
Tony Abbott who two weeks later writes a piece urging Britain to pursue a
catastrophic No Deal? As they’d say in Porpoise Spit - ‘What a
coincidence!’” Mr Doughty said, referring to the cult film Muriel’s
Wedding.
Mr Doughty said he was
surprised that both Mr Johnson and Mr Abbott would keep their meeting secret
and questioned what the pair discussed “not least given the ongoing
attempts by Boris to oust Theresa May and take over as PM and the Brexit
negotiations himself.”
"Perhaps he was
also giving him some tips on how to oust a prime minister?"
“It seems to me that
there are some very strange linkages between Tony Abbott and Boris Johnson and
others pursuing a hard Brexit agenda," he said.
