Johnson stands by claims

BREXIT: Foreign secretary defends £350m a week extra for NHS banner – and gets in mix-up over mugwumps

Boris Johnson has defended his derided claim that £350 million extra a week could be spent on the UK’s NHS after Brexit.

The foreign secretary’s comments came as a poll suggested that, for the first time since the June 23 referendum, a majority of voters think the decision to leave the EU was wrong.

Some 45% of those questioned by YouGov for The Times said that in hindsight they believed Britain was wrong to vote for withdrawal – up two points on a month ago – compared with 43% who thought the decision was right – down three points.

A central part of the Leave campaign – emblazoned on the side of Mr Johnson’s battlebus during last year’s EU referendum campaign – the NHS claim was denounced by the official statistician as “misleading”.

Challenged over whether he stood by the £350m claim, Mr Johnson told ITV1’s Good Morning Britain: “Of course I do,” and insisted the figure was “not disputed”.

During the referendum campaign, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Andrew Dilnot, took the unusual step of saying he was “disappointed” that the Leave campaign persisted with the £350m figure after being warned it was “misleading”.

Sir Andrew said the way the campaigners were deploying the figure risked undermining trust in official statistics.

The figure does not take account of the UK’s rebate, secured by Margaret Thatcher, or the cash returned to Britain by the EU.

Immediately after the Leave victory, then Ukip leader Nigel Farage admitted the figure was a “mistake” and said he would not have made the claim.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson also managed to get his mugwumps mixed up with his oompa-loompas during a bizarre attack on UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He used a tabloid newspaper article to warn voters not to be lulled into thinking Mr Corbyn was an essentially harmless “mutton-headed old mugwump”.

And he revealed that he believed the obscure term referred to a character in a children’s classic by Roald Dahl.

“It’s a long time since I read it, but I think it’s in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,” Mr Johnson told Good Morning Britain.

Mugwump is a native American term for a war leader, which was taken up in the 1880s to describe members of the US Republican party who switched parties to support Democrat presidential candidate Grover Cleveland.

For some time afterwards, the word was used in the US to describe a political turncoat.

More recently, mugwumps featured in the graphic and surrealistic novel Naked Lunch by Beat Generation writer William Burroughs – filmed by David Cronenberg in 1991 – as a bizarre and reptilian alien species.

The term also appeared in the best-selling Harry Potter series, to describe members of the International Confederation of Wizards – of which the character Albus Dumbledore was appointed the supreme mugwump.

Mugwumps even entered the UK pop charts in 1994, when they were mentioned in the chorus of Bomb The Bass hit Bug Powder Dust, a homage to the Burroughs book.

Muggle-Wump the Monkey appeared in Dahl’s story The Twits.

Mr Johnson’s comments came as a poll said the Conservatives’ lead over Labour narrowed by seven points since last week, although Theresa May’s party is still 16 points ahead.

The YouGov/Times opinion poll has the Tories down three points on 45% and Labour up four on 29% in what Jeremy Corbyn will hope signals a turning point in a race he insists is not a foregone conclusion.

It’s a long time since I read it, but I think it’s in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. BORIS JOHNSON