Downing Street hits back over Johnson’s Brexit views

DOWNING Street delivered a stinging slapdown to former foreign secretary Boris Johnson yesterday, saying he has produced “no new ideas” on Brexit.

In a barely-veiled rebuff to Mr Johnson’s ambitions to become prime minister, Theresa May’s official spokesman told reporters that the country needed “serious leadership with a serious plan” which was being provided by the current premier.

The comments came after Mr Johnson used his Daily Telegraph column to launch a scathing attack on Mrs May’s Brexit strategy, branding it a “fix” that can only lead to victory for the EU.

Britain has “gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank” due to Mrs May’s Chequers proposals to align UK standards on goods to the EU, Mr Johnson said.

But Mrs May’s spokesman insisted that the plans set out in the government’s Brexit White Paper were “the only credible and negotiable plan which has been put forward”.

And the spokesman added: “Boris Johnson resigned over Chequers. There’s no new ideas in this article to respond to.

“What we need at this time is serious leadership with a serious plan and that’s exactly what the country has with this Prime Minister and this Brexit plan.”

Mr Johnson had compared talks between Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier to a rigged wrestling match.

“The fix is in,” said the former foreign secretary. “The whole thing is about as pre-ordained as a bout between Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy; and in this case, I am afraid, the inevitable outcome is a victory for the EU, with the UK lying flat on the canvas and 12 stars circling symbolically over our semi-conscious head.”

Mr Johnson accused “some members” of the government of deliberately using the Irish border question to “stop a proper Brexit” and effectively keep Britain in the EU. He said that the real “scandal” was “not that we have failed, but that we have not even tried” on Brexit.