Boris Johnson: Voters don’t want Starmer, they’re just fed up with the Tories

Boris Johnson has urged “fed up” Tories not to risk handing Sir Keir Starmer the keys to No 10 despite the fact they cannot stand his policies.

The former prime minister said many voters viewed the Labour leader with the same enthusiasm “as you might look at a dish of limp lettuce”.

He added there was “still time between now and Thursday for the nation to swerve from the cliff edge” if voters “collectively come to [their] senses”.

Mr Johnson acknowledged that there was widespread apathy towards the Conservatives but urged people not to turn to Reform in response.

Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, he warned that Britain was on the brink of “a Left-wing socialist supremacy that lasts for a decade or more”.

“Starmer’s own approval ratings are shockingly low – the lowest ever for an Opposition leader on the verge of entering Downing Street, let alone of a triumph on the scale currently predicted,” the former prime minister said.

“The people view him with apathy, with resignation, as you might look at a dish of limp lettuce. You have to ask yourself why.

“Why, after 14 years of Tory government, and all the vicissitudes we have been through, is there so little active enthusiasm for Starmer?

“The answer is simple. People don’t really want him, or his agenda – or certainly not in the way they actively wanted Tony Blair.”

In a sign of thawing relations with Rishi Sunak he also praised the Prime Minister’s performance in this week’s BBC debate against Sir Keir.

He said that Mr Sunak had “showed what he can do and on any fair reading he won” by picking apart Sir Keir’s policies on illegal migration.

Mr Johnson said the Labour leader had no plan to stop the boats and would “junk” the Rwanda scheme just as it is starting to work as a deterrent.

He also warned that Sir Keir wants to take Britain back into the EU’s Single Market “like a whipped cur, even if it means free movement”.

But the former prime minister said the “biggest single reason why people are rightly viewing Starmer with such hesitation” was because of the economy.

“Do the British people want to be hit with yet higher taxes now after they have already paid so much? Do they really need to?” he asked.

“No, they certainly do not – and yet that is what Starmerism means. The Labour Party is now so confident of victory that they no longer even bother to conceal their agenda to clobber your property and your pension and much besides.”

‘Left-wing and dangerous’

Mr Johnson warned disaffected Tory voters that “the more you dig into Starmerism, the more Left-wing and dangerous it turns out to be”.

He added: “That is why Starmer is so oddly unloved, for a man on the verge of triumph. It is not just that Starmer lacks Blair’s charisma – he lacks the broad appeal of Blair’s policies.

“Let’s face it, the only reason Starmer is (allegedly) about to get such a landslide is that so many Tory voters are fed up, and preparing to stay at home or vote for other parties like Reform – even if they turn out to be Putin’s pet parrots.

“It would be a huge mistake. It is by no means too late to tilt the steering wheel in the direction of common sense, avert Starmergeddon, and prevent this country from going in completely the wrong direction.”

A YouGov poll earlier this month showed that Sir Keir has a net minus 12 favourability rating, with 39 per cent of voters viewing him positively and 51 per cent negatively.

Mr Sunak is far more unpopular with the electorate, however, on minus 51, with just 21 per cent seeing him favourably and 72 per cent viewing him unfavourably.