Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Oct 04, 2025

Boris Johnson ‘almost served in Liz Truss’s Cabinet as foreign secretary’

Boris Johnson ‘almost served in Liz Truss’s Cabinet as foreign secretary’

Boris Johnson almost served in Liz Truss’s Cabinet as foreign secretary, according to a new book. Ex-PMs reportedly discussed front-bench role focused on dealing with the war in Ukraine
Ms Truss met the former prime minister twice during this summer’s leadership contest, the book by journalist Sebastian Payne reveals.

The pair also spoke on the telephone in the last week of July - when Mr Johnson was still prime minister, where they in effect discussed a job swap should she win the contest.

She suggested that he could return to the Foreign Office, where he had served from 2016 to 2018, to concentrate on the war in Ukraine.

But in the end, the pair decided such an arrangement would be too complicated, according to the book, The Fall of Boris Johnson.

Ms Truss and Mr Johnson also had breakfast in Mr Johnson’s Downing Street flat on July 29, where Ms Truss was surprised to find that his famous wallpaper was not actually gold.

Her allies said he gave her plenty of “good advice”, which was followed up by a later visit to Chequers with political thoughts on the campaign.

The book reveals that such invitations were not extended to Rishi Sunak, the current Prime Minister, whom Mr Johnson blamed for costing his job.

Both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were asked repeatedly during the leadership campaign whether they would offer Mr Johnson a position in their government.

At one debate, Ms Truss said: “I very much suspect he would not want a future role in government, he needs a well-earned break. 

“I’m sure he will have a role, I’m sure he will be vocal but he won’t be part of the Government.”

Mr Sunak said: “The simple answer for me is no. We need to look forward at this point, we need to bring change that people need.”

Despite their discussions about a job offer, earlier this week Mr Johnson compared Ms Truss’s mini-Budget to a badly-played piano, in a reference to a Morecambe and Wise sketch.

Asked by CNN what he thought of his successor’s disastrous tax-cutting plans, the former prime minister originally tried to sidestep the issue - saying it was rude to criticise a British government abroad.

But then, in his first comments on the mini-Budget, he said: “It’s kind of like when I play the piano. The notes individually sound perfectly OK, but they’re not in the right order, or occurring at the right time.”

This reflected the famous 1971 sketch in which conductor Andre Previn criticised Eric Morecambe over his bad playing of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, prompting him to reply: “I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

Mr Johnson also rejected suggestions he could return as prime minister, saying the chances were “impossibilia cubed or squared”.

He said: “I’ve always said for about 20 years that my chances of becoming PM were about as good as my chances of becoming decapitated by a frisbee, or blinded by a champagne cork or locked in a disused fridge.

“I then did become PM so my chances of becoming PM again I think are those impossibilia cubed or squared.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×