Boris tries to steer Brexit agenda

LONDON: Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson has been accused by cabinet colleagues of “backseat driving” on Brexit after setting out his own vision of the country’s future outside the European Union.

Only days before Prime Minister Theresa May is due to speak in Italy about Britain’s planned EU departure, Johnson published a 4 300-word newspaper article that roamed well beyond his ministerial brief and, in some cases, the approach set out by the government.

Interior minister Amber Rudd said it was “absolutely fine” for the foreign secretary to intervene publicly but she did not want him managing the Brexit process.

“What we have is Theresa May managing that process; she’s driving the car,” Rudd told the BBC’s Andrew Marr yesterday.

Asked if Johnson was backseat driving, she replied: “Yes, you could call it backseat driving, absolutely.”

Johnson’s article re-ignited speculation that he would challenge May for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Rudd, however, said she did not think Johnson was laying the groundwork to challenge May.

“He, like I, supports the prime minister at this difficult time as we try to conclude the negotiations with the EU,” she said.

May’s deputy, Damian Green, also weighed in, saying Johnson had written a “very exuberant” article but it is “clear to everyone that the driver of the car is the prime minister”.

“It is the job of the rest of us in the cabinet to agree on a set of proposals and get behind those proposals and get behind the prime minister,” Green told BBC TV.

Johnson had written in the Daily Telegraph that Britain would not pay to access European markets in the future. Once out of the EU, the country should borrow to invest in infrastructure, reform the tax code and set immigration levels as it sees fit, he said.

A prominent Brexit campaigner in last year’s referendum, Johnson also repeated the controversial claim that the government would be £350 million (R6.2 billion) a week better off outside the EU.

With some colleagues angered by the timing – Johnson’s article was published a day after a bomb injured 30 people on a train in London – he later said on Twitter: “Looking forward to PM’s Florence Speech. All behind Theresa for a glorious Brexit”. Reuters