Rivals complain about Boris Johnson's promises in UK leadership race

Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom's former foreign secretary and the man who is well ahead in the race to become the nation's next prime minister, has been accused of promising Conservative Party members of Parliament whatever is required to win their support, even if some of his pledges contradict one another.

The claim was made in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday after MPs reportedly complained that Johnson had told hardline Brexiteer lawmakers that he wants to thoroughly renegotiate – if not throw away – the withdrawal agreement drawn up by Prime Minister Theresa May and the European Union; a document that sets out the terms of the UK's pending exit from the bloc. The paper said he told hardline Brexiteers it was effectively "dead".

But, at the same time, Johnson has reportedly told EU-friendly Conservative MPs that there is almost no chance of the UK leaving the EU without a divorce deal – a so-called no-deal Brexit – under his leadership.

With him having also said the UK will leave the EU on the scheduled Oct 31 exit date and there being little time left to renegotiate May's deal, the two sets of promises seem to be mutually exclusive, the paper noted.

Unnamed MPs have also claimed Johnson has made conflicting promises in closed-door meetings about the UK's proposed high-speed, north-south rail link, with some believing he is in favor of it and others convinced he is opposed.

"Boris has been telling colleagues, of course, 'I'll rip up the whole thing,' yet he's also securing the votes of centrists like Oliver Dowden," one unnamed MP told the paper. "You could say some of us have been naive not to campaign that way, but also that can really come back to haunt you."

Fellow leadership hopeful Rory Stewart told reporters on Monday: "Somehow, he's convinced (EU-friendly MP) Matt Hancock that he agrees with every word that Matt says, that he's in favor of the softest of soft Brexits; he's convinced Robert Buckland that he would never go for a no-deal; and at the same time he's got (hardline Brexiteer) Mark Francois roaring: 'This man looked me in the eyes and promised we're going out on the hardest of no-deal Brexits.'"

MPs voted on their favored candidates on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to trim the field down from the six people who were still in the race on Tuesday morning. Those who secured at least 33 votes got to participate in a televised debate on Tuesday evening.

Sajid Javid, the current home secretary and one of the final six who were still in the race on Tuesday morning, saidon the BBC's Today program that the final two candidates left standing at the end of this week should not both be from the same privileged background.

Javid, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, said it would be a shame if the face-off was like "some kind of Oxford Union debate" between Boris Johnson and someone similar.

The other five people who were still in the race on Tuesday morning all graduated from Oxford University.