Johnson’s Brexit ‘a fantasy world’

CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond has launched a scathing attack on Boris Johnson, dismissing the former foreign secretary’s Brexit proposals as “fantasy world” and repeatedly saying he does not expect him to become prime minister.

The Chancellor mounted a sustained assault on his former Cabinet colleague in a newspaper interview and a series of broadcast appearances.

Asked by the Daily Mail whether Mr Johnson could become prime minister, Mr Hammond said: “I don’t expect it to happen,” and suggested Mr Johnson could not do “grown-up politics”.

He went on to attack the flamboyant Brexiteer for having “no grasp of detail” on complex subjects like Brexit, suggesting his greatest achievement to date had been introducing the “Boris Bike” cycle scheme while London mayor.

The attack came at the end of the first day of the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham in which its fault lines over Brexit were exposed with just weeks to go to settle a withdrawal deal with Brussels.

Mr Johnson had used a Sunday Times interview to describe Mrs May’s Brexit policy as “deranged” and “preposterous”.

In remarks that fuelled speculation about his leadership ambitions, the man who spearheaded the Leave campaign contrasted his position on Brexit with that of Theresa May, who backed Remain, saying: “Unlike the Prime Minister, I fought for this.”

Mr Johnson is not speaking from the stage at this year’s conference, after walking out of Cabinet in July in protest at the plan agreed at Chequers for the UK’s future relationship with the EU.

But his scheduled speech on the fringe of the gathering today is the most hotly-anticipated event of the four-day conference, with widespread expectations he will use it to step up his assault on the PM’s plans.

In a round of broadcast interviews on yesterday, Mr Hammond was repeatedly asked whether Mr Johnson could ever become prime minister, and stated several times: “I don’t believe that will happen.”

He said: “Of course, Boris is a big personality, nobody is denying that.

“What I’m saying is that the business of government is a process of attention to detail, follow-through, lots of hard work.”