BORIS BLASTS OFF!

So how DID his young girlfriend tame him in time for the big launch?

BORIS Johnson yesterday warned MPs they would ‘reap the whirlwind’ if they tried to stop him taking Britain out of the EU this autumn.

After weeks of silence, the former foreign secretary ignited the Tory leadership campaign with a pledge to shake ‘the plaster from the ceiling’ in a bid to get Westminster out of the Brexit ‘morass’

In a tightly-controlled campaign launch in London, Mr Johnson insisted he was ‘not aiming for a No Deal outcome’. But he said No Deal would be kept firmly on the table in the hope of winning concessions from the EU, stressing it was ‘astonishing that anyone could suggest dispensing with that vital tool of negotiation’.

He brushed aside questions about how he would respond to Parliament blocking No Deal, saying MPs would find it ‘very difficult’ to stop him leading Britain out of the EU on October 31. He insisted: ‘I think if we now block it, collectively as parliamentarians we will reap the whirlwind and we will face mortal retribution from the electorate.’.

In a bid to quell fears he will drag the party to the Right, Mr Johnson said he would pursue a ‘sensible, moderate, modern Conservatism’. But Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday hit out at Mr Johnson, saying his October 31 pledge could not be delivered.

Mr Hammond said: ‘I think it will be very difficult – in fact I think it will be impossible – to do this by October 31 and I don’t think it will be in our national interest that we drive towards this cliff-edge at speed. The fact we are changing the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister doesn’t change the basic dynamics of this problem.’

However, Mr Johnson’s case was bolstered last night when a Labour-led bid to block No Deal was defeated in Parliament.

The ex-minister, 54, who was joined at the campaign launch by his 31-year- old girlfriend Carrie Symonds, claimed he was the only candidate who could keep Jeremy Corbyn out of No10.

He defended plans for big tax cuts for the better-off and insisted there would also be a ‘package of measures’ for those on more modest incomes.

Mr Johnson vowed not to countenance a further Brexit delay, warning that it would lead to Labour winning power.

He said: ‘After three years and two missed deadlines, we must leave the EU on October 31. Delay means defeat. Delay means Corbyn. Kick the can again, and we kick the bucket.’ But he ducked questions about whether he would resign if Britain is still in the EU on November 1. Mr Johnson is expected to top the ballot today when MPs hold the first round of votes designed to whittle down the field of candidates to succeed Theresa May from ten to two.

In his speech yesterday he gave few hints at his policy agenda, saying the Government first had to deliver Brexit or risk growing public anger.

He told his audience: ‘We cannot ignore the morass at Westminster, where parties have entered a yellow box junction unable to move forward or back, while around the country there is a mood of disillusion, even despair, at our ability to get things done.

‘The longer it goes on, the worse the risk that there will be serious contamination and a real loss of confidence because the people of this country deserve better from their leaders. They need courage and they need clarity. And they want a resolution.’

Mr Johnson said he would not temper his controversial style, adding: ‘Of course, occasionally some plaster comes off the ceiling as a result of a phrase I may have used... but it is vital that we as politicians remember that one of the reasons people feel alienated is because too often they feel we are muffling and veiling our language and not speaking as we find.’

At a hustings for Tory MPs last night, Mr Johnson said he was ‘strongly not attracted’ to shutting down Parliament to get a No Deal Brexit through.

‘I’ll shake plaster from the ceiling’