The Scotsman

Boris Johnson denied his bright ‘ Brexit plane’ to sell Britain to the world

- By ANDREW WOODCOCK

Boris John son’ s idea for a new brightly coloured “Brexit plane” to help him sell Global Britain abroad appears to have failed to get off the ground.

Speaking on an official tour of Latin America, the Foreign Secretary had said the RAF Voyager jet shared by the Prime Minister, senior Cabinet members and the Royal Family “never seems to be available”. He also suggested its drab grey colour scheme undermined its impact as a travelling symbol of Britain.

But a Downing Street source yesterday said that it was not aware of“any plans for the current transport situation to change”. They also pointed out the grey colour scheme was because the aircraft – a militar y adaptation of an Airbus A330 – was still used “operationa­lly to do important things like refuelling”.

Mr Johnson is carr ying out his five- day tour of Latin Amer- ica by commercial flights, taking a variet y of airlines as he hops from Peru to Argentina and Chile with an entourage of officials and press.

He had to stop off in Madrid t o change planes on his Air Europa ser vice from London to Lima, adding five hours to the journey time, because the only direct flight on offer did not fit his schedule.

But Mr Johnson i nsisted i t was not his own comfor t he was concerned about. “We are hard as nails,” he said.

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