Boris Johnson bolstering a bid to oust Commonwealth secretary general

Boris Johnson will bolster a bid to oust Commonwealth secretary general Lady Scotland who has been dubbed ‘Baroness Brazen’ over her lavish spending in the role

• Lady Scotland has served as secretary-general of Commonwealth since 2016
• Dubbed ‘Baroness Brazen’ over lavish spending, Boris is leading bid to oust her
• Instead Mr Johnson has publicly backed rival candidate, Kamina Johnson Smith

Boris Johnson will next week lead a bid to oust former Labour minister Baroness Scotland as head of the Commonwealth.

The Prime Minister will use a summit in Rwanda to push for member states to remove the peer, according to Whitehall sources.

Lady Scotland has served as the organisation’s secretary-general since 2016. She has been dubbed ‘Baroness Brazen’ over her lavish spending in the role – a characterisation she says is ‘unfair’.

Her original term of office was due to end in 2020 but has been repeatedly extended because of the pandemic.

Commonwealth sources confirmed that Lady Scotland is seeking to secure a second term when Commonwealth leaders gather in the Rwandan capital Kigali next Friday.

But, in a highly unusual move, Mr Johnson has publicly backed a rival candidate from another country.

Boris Johnson will next week lead a bid to oust former Labour minister Baroness Scotland (pictured) as head of the Commonwealth, and will use a summit in Rwanda to push for her removal

In a message last month, he offered his support to Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith, who wants to oust Lady Scotland at the summit. The Prime Minister said Mrs Johnson Smith had ‘the vast experience and support to unite our unique family of nations and seize the opportunities ahead’.

Government sources declined to explain exactly why Mr Johnson wants to remove Lady Scotland, but one said he believed it was ‘time for a change’, while another said bluntly: ‘He doesn’t like her.’

Just months after she took office in 2016 it was revealed that Lady Scotland spent £338,000 refurbishing her grace-and-favour apartment in Mayfair.

Then Ram Venuprasad, a former deputy head of her office, won nearly £300,000 in compensation in 2018 after claiming he had been wrongly blamed by her for leaks about her spending.

A string of other Commonwealth countries have also publicly backed Mrs Johnson Smith, including India, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago.

The move sets the scene for a bitter showdown in Kigali.

The Prime Minister will hope to persuade fellow leaders that Lady Scotland – who served as attorney general under Gordon Brown – should not be granted an automatic second term.

If he succeeds, the 54 Commonwealth leaders will then hold a conclave to decide who should lead an organisation that represents 2.4billion people across the globe.

Sources predicted that Lady Scotland would try to cling on to her job against challenges from Mrs Johnson Smith and, potentially, other candidates.

To win over African leaders in the bloc Lady Scotland has pledged to stand down after two years, when it will be Africa’s turn to nominate a candidate.

A spokesman for Lady Scotland said: ‘Throughout her first term the Secretary General has been relentlessly focused on delivering for Commonwealth members.’

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