Jeremy Hunt slams 'disrespectful' Boris Johnson for avoiding interviews
Hours after branding rival Boris Johnson a ‘coward’, Conservative leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt has called out his Tory rival for avoiding interviews.
The Tory leader contender vowed his rival is “going to lose“ when he joined Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain on Monday.
Mr Hunt also took swipes at the former Mayor of London, who has repeatedly refused to give television interviews, including multiple requests from Good Morning Britain.
He told Susanna: “You cannot become Prime Minister and not answer questions about the decisions you are going to have to make about Brexit immediately.
"The real danger we have got with Boris not coming on the show is that he is going to come to power on a very fragile coalition. People like Matt Hancock, who want No Deal taken off the table, [and] Mark Francois, who wants No Deal. Sometimes in politics, you can fudge and get away with it, but in the case of Brexit, you are going to have to make decisions immediately and that very fragile coalition will collapse immediately."
"If that happens, we won’t have another leadership contest, we will have Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10 and then there won’t be any Brexit at all. One thing he won’t be able to do is to deliver Brexit.”
Mr Hunt then accused his rival of being ‘disrespectful’ as he added: “It is very disrespectful to say that you are not going to appear in any head to head debates in the two weeks that they can see you before they have actually voted.
"If you are saying the only debates I will do are after people have voted, that is not showing respect. You need to go into Number 10 with a mandate. People need to know what you are going to do.”
Meanwhile, Mr Hunt also addressed the controversy surrounding Boris Johnson's personal life and how much the public is entitled to know.
He said: “I think what happens in people’s personal lives is completely irrelevant given the constitutional crisis that we face at the moment as a country. What people want to know is, what are your answers on Brexit? What are you going to do when faced with these difficult choices? We have all got personal lives, I am sure we have all got things that we wouldn’t want our mum and dad to find out that we did 25 years ago, but this is just so irrelevant compared to the gravity of the situation we face as a country.”
The interview then turned to Mr Hunt's controversial view that the window for abortion should be halved to 12 weeks.
He explained: “My views are a matter of public record, that’s how I voted. I have been very honest that those are my views but I have also been very clear that as Prime Minister, I will not seek to change the law on that issue… it is a free vote matter for the House of Commons and I see absolutely no prospect of the House of Commons changing their view on that matter.”
Continuing to avoid questions on why he holds such strong views on abortion, he added: “It would be fine to get into that discussion if it was something I wanted to change as Prime Minister, but I don’t… it is a personal view… it is not actually relevant to this debate about who should be the next Prime Minister. It’s nothing to do with what I want to do as Prime Minister of this country.”