‘Maggie would have fired Boris by now’

THERESA May faced more pressure to sack Boris Johnson last night as Margaret Thatcher’s most senior adviser said she would never have put up with the Foreign Secretary’s antics.

Mrs Thatcher’s foreign policy chief Lord Powell said she would not have allowed gaffe-prone Mr Johnson to retain his Cabinet seat for more than two minutes.

His comment came after Mr Johnson was widely criticised for saying ‘f*** business’ in response to industry fears that Brexit could damage the economy.

Lord Powell said: ‘The idea that she would have tolerated Boris Johnson’s presence in the Cabinet for more than two minutes is absurd. She would have not stood for that sort of behaviour.’

Lord Powell took another swipe at Mrs May, saying Mrs Thatcher would have shown ‘real leadership’ in handling Brexit but would not have pulled Britain out of the Single Market or Customs Union. Mrs May blundered when she committed the UK to quitting the EU next March by triggering Article 50 last year.

He said: ‘Mrs Thatcher would have shown real leadership, had clear ideas as to what had to be done and would have pursued them remorselessly. She would certainly have negotiated much harder than either David Cameron or Theresa May does in order to get her way.

‘She would not have been dogged by timetables. I very much doubt she would have set a March 2019 timetable.’

Mrs Thatcher knew from her five-year fight to force Brussels to slash Britain’s EU bills that it ‘took a long time to get our money back’. He added: ‘She would have regarded this as something that required at least as much time.’