PM ‘slaps down’ Boris Johnson over £5bn NHS funding demand

Theresa May “slapped down” Boris Johnson today over his public demands for an extra £100m a week for the NHS - a move apparently designed to make the Foreign Secretary seem prime ministerial.

“The cash injection would allow the Foreign Secretary to show he is acting on his EU referendum claim that NHS spending could be raised once Britain leaves the EU,” Sky News reports. Many consider Johnson to be positioning himself for a leadership run, the website adds.

The Prime Minister was having none of it.

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May reminded Johnson that she deems the NHS a priority and is working with Chancellor Philip Hammond and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt to ensure NHS investment, and that the budget spending was released “only a few weeks ago”, The Guardian writes.

Hammond also “appeared irritated by the intervention”, reminding reporters which department Johnson runs, The Times reports. The Chancellor noted: “Mr Johnson is the Foreign Secretary. I gave the Health Secretary an extra £6bn at the recent Budget and we will look at departmental allocations again at the spending review when that takes place.”

Anna Soubry, Tory MP and Remain rebel, called for Johnson to get the axe, tweeting: “PM shld have sacked #BorisJohnson for longstanding incompetence & disloyalty. Unless TM acts now Boris will bring her down #Godhelpus.”

City A.M. says that Johnson “is reportedly behind a mini cabinet coup, using a discussion on the winter crisis this morning to press the Prime Minister” to commit an extra £5bn a year to the NHS. However, the alleged ambush appears to have backfired. Johnson’s “intervention is being attacked by virtually everyone”, according to the newspaper.

This is not the first time that the Foreign Secretary has challenged the PM on policy, Business Insider says, noting that he penned a 4,000-word article outlining his personal vision for Brexit days before May’s speech in Florence setting out the UK’s position.