Boris Johnson’s new cost of living tsar called for him to quit just months ago
Boris Johnson’s new cost of living tsar called for the Prime Minister to resign just months ago and has a long record of excoriating tweets directed at the government.
David Buttress, co-founder of food delivery app Just Eat UK, said in January that Johnson “just has to” quit, while in April he said that voting Conservative in Wales was a “form of self harm”.
The revelations will be an embarrassing blow for Johnson, who is trying to get his faltering premiership back on track by focussing on the cost of living crisis.
Buttress was unveiled as the government’s cost of living tsar just yesterday, with Number 10 announcing he will “work in partnership with the private sector to identify, develop and promote new and existing business-led initiatives that support people with rising costs of living”.
In January, he tweeted: “Why is it that the worst people often rise to the highest office and stay there? For me, it isn’t important what job you do or your title, but it is vitally important why you do the job and what you achieve.
“Boris has to go, he has to. You can’t survive judgement like this.”
The tweet came during the flood of revelations about lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
The former Just Eat chief also accused the Prime Minister of “being fast and loose with the economy and the impact on the most vulnerable”.
In another tweet, he said: “Does anyone believe he would be PM on merit? Not a chance mate. 19 PMs from Eton.”
Buttress, who resigned as Just Eat chief executive in 2017, said on announcement of his new role yesterday that he was “looking forward to working closely with my private sector colleagues, to help support our communities and customers with practical and real cost of living saving initiative”.