UK Edition Boris Johnson's relationship with Theresa May was looking increasingly strained on Thursday night after he was rebuked by the Prime Minister for saying that Saudi Arabia had been “playing proxy wars” in the Middle East.
In an almost unprecedented rift between a Prime Minister and a Foreign Secretary, Mrs May’s official spokesman publicly slapped down Mr Johnson by saying that his comments about Saudi Arabia “are not the Government’s position”.
Mr Johnson will have an opportunity to travel to the Middle Eastern country where he will “set out the Government’s position this weekend”, the spokesman added in comments that will inflame tensions between the two senior Tories.
Ministerial allies condemned Downing Street’s treatment of the Foreign Secretary, calling it a “ridiculous attempt to belittle a member of the Cabinet”.
They pointed out that Mr Johnson was the most senior Leave campaigner in the Government and that Mrs May would rely on him to “sell” her Brexit deal to the public after she reaches an agreement with Brussels.
MP backers of Mr Johnson said that he was “furious” at repeated attacks by Mrs May and her allies.
Gavin Barwell, a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, appeared to break ranks with Mrs May, saying that it was Mr Johnson’s “job to set out the concerns that we have” and that “it’s perfectly right that we should raise these issues”.
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes, tweeted her support for Mr Johnson.
Allies were also upset at what they saw as a pattern of behaviour, after Mrs May made a joke at the Foreign Secretary’s expense at a party earlier this year and the Chancellor poked fun at him during his Autumn Statement.
Some Eurosceptics are concerned that only one of the Cabinet’s “Three Brexiteers”, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, appears to have the ear of the Prime Minister, while Mr Johnson and Liam Fox, the Trade Secretary, both give the appearance of being more detached from the inner circle.
The row came after The Guardian published footage of Mr Johnson’s comments to the Med 2 conference in Rome last week, in which he lumped Saudi Arabia in with Iran when he raised concerns about “puppeteering” in the region.
Mr Johnson said: “There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives.
“That’s one of the biggest political problems in the whole region. And the tragedy for me – and that’s why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area – is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.”
The Foreign Secretary said that there were not enough “big characters” in the region who were willing to “reach out beyond their Sunni or Shia” group.
He told the conference: “That’s why you’ve got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars.”
Mrs May’s spokesman said: “Those are the Foreign Secretary’s views. They are not the Government’s position on Saudi and its role in the region. The Foreign Secretary will be in the region this weekend.
"He will be in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and will have the opportunity to set out the way the UK sees its relationship with Saudi and the work we want to do with them and other partners to bring an end to the appalling conflict in Yemen.”
Asked whether Mr Johnson was expected to apologise to the Saudi regime on Sunday, the spokesman said: “He will have meetings with senior representatives in Saudi Arabia and he will have the opportunity to set out the Government’s position.”
Mrs May is thought to have been angered by the comments because they emerged just after she returned from a trip to the Gulf, which she used to hold diplomatic talks with the Saudis.
The Prime Minister is also very keen to develop trading links with the Gulf states to boost the post-Brexit economy. It was reported that the Saudis are concerned at the mixed signals coming from the Government.
However, a Whitehall source said: “The Saudis haven’t batted an eyelid.”
Sources also made clear that the Foreign Secretary said nothing that had not been said to the Saudis “behind closed doors”.
In comments that caused dismay in Westminster, the Prime Minister last month mocked Mr Johnson at the Spectator awards, joking that she might put him down like a disobedient dog.
And during his Autumn Statement, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, made a pointed reference to Mr Johnson, saying that he “will prove no more adept at pulling rabbits from hats than my successor as foreign secretary has been at retrieving balls from the back of scrums”.
One ally of Mr Johnson’s in the Government said: “People are trying to trivialise him. It’s not going to work. He is doing a good job as Foreign Secretary.” An MP added: “The fact is, people in Downing Street are threatened by Boris. That’s why they react like this.”