David Frost Urges BoJo to Embrace ‘Free Markets, Free Debate, Low Taxes' to Win Reelection
13:05 GMT 09.01.2022 (Updated: 15:35 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Olivier Matthys
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In his resignation letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in December, ex-Brexit minister David Frost stressed that he was stepping down over "concerns about the current direction of travel" regarding the government's domestic and foreign policy. He later reiterated he had not been prompted by “leadership” issues.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged to “set the direction of travel” for his Government along traditional Conservative lines if he wanted to avoid defeat at the next General Election.
Amid talk of a possible leadership challenge to Johnson, former Brexit minister David Frost, in an interview for the Daily Mail – his first since his resignation last December – suggested that the Tory PM revitalise the country with “free markets, free debate and low taxes”, while also charting a route that would appeal to voters.
“What I think we need to do is be clearer about the direction of travel, clearer about how we’re going to get there. And I think the PM should trust his instincts a bit more,” stated Frost.
The former cabinet minister, who stepped down not due to “leadership” issues, but because he “couldn't support certain policies - most recently on the COVID restrictions", indicated that the Prime Minister needed better support around him in his team.
“The PM has a right, when he wants something to happen, for the levers that he pulls to actually produce something. And he has the right to the best possible advice around him. So I think there needs to be machinery changes and there probably need to be some different voices around him to make sure that he gets the best possible advice.”
Polling ‘Doesn't Look Good'
Weighing in on the recent poll figures for the Mail that showed the Labour Party leading by 16 per cent in the Northern 'Red Wall' seats that Johnson had secured in the 2019 General Election, he said:
“If we're going to get out of this little trough and win the Election in a couple of years' time, then we've got to develop that. It isn't about just, 'Is this tax increase justifiable or not?' It's about the big-picture things we are trying to do and why.”
Suggesting that Boris Johnson’s government avail itself more of the “complete legislative freedom” that Brexit brought with it, Frost said that if he were in Johnson’s place he would “cut tariffs a lot more quickly than we're doing and introduce a much more assertive competition policy.”
“I don't think the Red Wall is so different to the rest of the country. What people want is their own lives to get better,” stated David Frost.
The ex-minister warned that issues such as keeping cost of energy low and focusing on security of supply were currently more important, in his opinion, than “green politics, net zero, the climate emergency”, which were an inalienable part of “mainstream opinion”.
18 December 2021, 22:31 GMT
If he garners “the right sort of support,” Boris Johnson will be Prime Minister this time next year, claimed Frost, despite fallout from the sleaze scandal, Tory rebellion in the Commons over COVID-19 restrictions and the ongoing Cabinet Office “Partygate” probe. The latter is looking into potentially lockdown-breaching Christmas gatherings at Downing Street in 2020.
Defining Johnson’s signature “Conservatism”, he underscored that it was about a “can do” attitude.
“….He is relentlessly optimistic and positive about this country, which is a good thing, and he's right to be. I think his fundamental views about the world and politics are good ones,” claimed Frost.
