Johnson faces backlash over Brexit putdown
ALLIES of former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson have hit back after Downing Street was accused of compiling a “dirty dossier” designed to damage his reputation.
Friends claim Prime Minister Theresa May’s team drew it up in 2016. A row erupted yesterday over allegations that Mr Johnson had been deliberately smeared, as Conservative MPs openly criticised him for accusing Mrs May of wrapping a “suicide vest” around Britain in the Brexit talks.
A Foreign Office minister and former colleague even vowed to end his political career because of the remark.
Writing in the ‘Mail on Sunday’, Mr Johnson had said: “We have opened ourselves to perpetual political blackmail. We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution – and handed the detonator to Michel Barnier.
“We have given him a jemmy with which Brussels can choose at any time to crack apart the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“It is a humiliation. We look like a seven-stone weakling being comically bent out of shape by a 500lb gorilla.”
Mr Johnson also lashed out at the Northern Ireland “backstop”, the measure aimed at ensuring no hard Border on the island of Ireland. According to the EU, if no trade deal with the UK resolved the issue, Northern Ireland would effectively remain part of the single market.
Ministers, including the UK’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid, criticised Mr Johnson’s analogy. “I think there are much better ways to articulate your differences,” Mr Javid said.
Former army officer Tom Tugendhat, viewed as a possible rival in a leadership contest, said: “A suicide bomber murdered many in the courtyard of my office in Helmand.
“Comparing the PM to that isn’t funny.”
But Zac Goldsmith defended him and friends said No 10 must answer for the creation of the document, which has been passed to journalists.
One ally said it was the latest in a dirty tricks campaign that began with criticism of Mr Johnson’s comments on the burka, which they say were taken out of context.
As the row intensified last night, Tory MP Mr Goldsmith backed Mr Johnson by questioning the principles of his critic, Alan Duncan.
Mr Duncan, a close colleague in the Foreign Office and still a minister, tweeted: “For Boris to say that the PM’s view is like that of a suicide bomber is too much. This marks one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics. I’m sorry, but this is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isn’t now, I will make sure it is later.”
Mr Goldsmith hit back, writing: “There are a number of possible motives behind this tweet, but given its author, we can be certain ‘principles’ aren’t one of them.”
Mr Johnson’s latest article came amid intense speculation about his private life, days after he and his wife Marina confirmed their divorce. (© Daily Telegraph, London)