Boris Johnson’s talent for surrounding himself with uninspiring ministers in the Cabinet has safeguarded the prime minister against any real challenge to his leadership, Bow Group Research Fellow Benjamin Loughnane has said.

“The cleverest thing Boris [Johnson] has done is surround himself by the most mediocre, terrible possible candidates to replace him.

“It means that when he really is in an untenable position — when he’s lost all moral authority, when he can’t really lead or introduce any new restrictions — there isn’t really anyone there to replace him,” Benjamin Loughnane said in response Mark Dolan’s remarks that he could back Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Speaking on GB News, the Research Fellow for Migration continued: “The fact that you’ve gone for Rishi shows the lack of talent there is, because I don’t think Rishi is that impressive. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he has written off £4.3 billion worth of furlough-related fraud. That’s a huge amount of money to effectively say we’re not going to follow up and chase.

“He hasn’t been a great chancellor. He hasn’t been particularly good, and I don’t think he’d be a good prime minister. I think if you’re going for Rishi Sunak, it just goes to show how bleak the situation is in terms of the candidates that there are.”

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