Johnson's dinner bust-up shows how lost the Tories are

Does Boris Johnson not realise that his betrayal of the promise of Brexit is the main cause of the fall of the Tory party and the rise of Reform?

- JOHN RENTOUL

That was evidently the case at a state reception dinner for British right-wingers on Wednesday evening, which descended into a bust-up between Boris Johnson and other senior Tories over the party's record in government on lowering immigration.

In an astonishing turn of events, a witness described “real anger” as the meeting of minds led to a spat between Liz Truss, Johnson and his former boss, broadcaster Andrew Neil.

According to that witness: “Boris argued that Brexit gives us powers to reduce immigration if we wish, and said he did reduce it.” The second part of that sentence is untrue. Net immigration quadrupled from an average of about 200,000 a year to 789,000 in Boris Johnson’s last year as prime minister.

The dinner, at the Peninsula hotel in Mayfair, was hosted by Newsmax, the conservative US broadcaster, after a reception in honour of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, who are in Britain for Donald Trump’s state visit.

Nigel Farage was there, with the air of a man who believes he is going to be prime minister, although he and the US cabinet members left before the after-dinner spat.