Politics

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt’s voting record


The two Tory leadership finalists are busy making promises about what they would each do as Theresa May’s replacement.

Boris Johnson, the front runner in the contest, claims he can broker a new deal with the European Union on Brexit before the end of October, and has also outlined plans to raise the income tax higher rate threshold to £80,000. Meanwhile, his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is pledging to boost defence spending by £15m over the next five years.

But what about their past records? As Conservative Party members prepare to elect their new leader next month, The Week looks at the voting history of both Johnson and Hunt in the House of Commons.

Europe

Both of the leadership contenders have generally voted against more EU integration and were for a referendum on the UK’s membership ahead of the Brexit vote in 2016, according to TheyWorkForYou – which calculates the overall stance of MPs based on data from The Public Whip website.

As foreign secretary in May’s cabinet, Hunt backed the prime minister’s draft deal with the EU in all three meaningful votes in the Commons earlier this year.

Johnson – who resigned as foreign secretary in July 2018 over May’s plans – voted against the deal in the first two meaningful votes, on 15 January and 12 March, but finally backed it in the third, on 29 March. At the time, he said he had reached the “sad conclusion” that it was the only way to ensure Brexit happened.

Foreign conflict

Johnson backed the 2003 vote to use “all means necessary to ensure the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction”, which led to the Iraq War, but has since described the invasion as a “tragic mistake” and a “misbegotten folly”.

Hunt did not become an MP until two years later, when he won the South West Surrey seat, but has generally voted for investigations into the conflict. Both he and Johnson backed air strikes against Isis in Syria in December 2015.

Tax and business

Both candidates have voted for raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax and for reducing the rate of corporation tax. Each of them has a mixed record on measures to reduce tax avoidance, and both have consistently voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits.

Environment

Hunt and Johnson have voted against several measures intended to reduce climate change. These included a vote in March 2016 on setting a decarbonisation target for the UK within six months of June 2016, with annual reviews.

Johnson has long opposed a third Heathrow runway – famously saying that he would “lie down in front of those bulldozers” – but failed to turn up to a crunch vote on whether to approve the project in June 2018. Instead, the then-foreign secretary jetted off to Afghanistan in “what appeared to be a hastily arranged diplomatic trip”, according to The Independent. Hunt followed the strict three-line whip to back the plans.

Social issues and home affairs

The two contenders have generally voted in favour of a stricter asylum system, stronger enforcement of immigration rules and mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities.

Hunt consistently backed same-sex marriage in 2014. Johnson was not an MP at the time, only winning the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat the following year.

However, PinkNews notes that despite various “anti-LGBT gaffes” in the 1990s when he was a journalist, Johnson backed equal marriage as London mayor and also “rebelled against his own party on several occasions to back LGBT+ rights measures” while serving as MP for Henley, from 2001 to 2008.

More recently, meanwhile, Hunt has courted controversy by saying that he still personally believes the legal time limit for abortion should be cut in half – a stance he took in a 2008 Commons vote – but insists he would not change the current legislation if he became PM.

Health and education

Having served as health secretary for six years, Hunt has generally voted for smoking bans, while Johnson has been against them. Both voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life.

The two MPs have backed academies and measures to give greater autonomy for schools. Hunt has consistently voted for university tuition fees, while Johnson backed the Lib Dem campaign to abolish fees in 2004 but voted against scrapping them in 2017.



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