Pact is ‘biggest stitch-up since Bayeux Tapestry’
BORIS Johnson yesterday accused the Government of apparently “colluding” with big business to push the case for staying in the European Union.
The former London mayor reacted scathingly to a leaked letter from Serco boss Rupert Soames to David Cameron after a meeting in early February, before the Prime Minister concluded his Brussels renegotiation and while he was still claiming he could back Brexit if he did not get what he wanted from the EU.
Mr Soames set out his willingness to get companies on board the Remain campaign – and added his view that private firms like his should have more involvement in running prisons.
Mr Johnson said: “This is the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry. It stinks to high heaven. It makes us look like a banana republic.”
Campaigning in the Midlands, he added: “When you’ve got what looks like collusion between the Government and big Remainbacking businesses, on the surface of it, it seems to be suggesting that in exchange for support for Remain there is consideration to be given to the awarding of lavish public sector contracts, I think people will wonder what’s going on.”
Asked on the Vote Leave campaign bus by reporters if Mr Cameron had been deceitful, Mr Johnson said: “I certainly think it really casts doubt over the sincerity of the negotiations.
“It was perfectly obvious from quite a while back that the Government was determined to campaign for a Remain vote and I’m afraid that contaminated the negotiations because we then didn’t get a bean, a sausage, from our counterparts in the EU.” Serco would not comment. Mr Johnson also accused the Remain camp of talking Britain down as the latest leg of his Brexit roadshow saw him joined by Labour MP Gisela Stuart and, for the first time, Ukip MP and ex-Tory Douglas Carswell, visiting the refinery of aluminium ingot maker JBMI in Hixon, Staffs.
The trio fed a symbolic giant paper Bank of UK Taxpayer “cheque” to Brussels for £350million – our weekly EU payment – into a blast furnace.
The heat of it was so intense it singed a BBC cameraman’s fluffy sound boom.