Johnson seeks ‘unhinged’ Blair’s help on Middle East

BORIS JOHNSON has held two secret meetings with Tony Blair about the Middle East since taking office despite urging voters to ignore his views.

The Foreign Secretary met Mr Blair in October and again in January.

The conversations lasted between 30 and 45 minutes and demonstrate the extent to which Mr Blair is re-engaging in British politics after restructuring his business affairs last year.

On Friday, Mr Blair called on voters to “rise up” to keep Britain in the European Union in his most significant UK political intervention since the Chilcot report. Within hours, Mr Johnson, who campaigned to leave the EU, appeared before cameras, saying: “This is the guy who dragooned the United Kingdom into the Iraq war on a completely false prospectus with consequences which foreign ministers here are still trying to deal with. I respectfully say to Tony Blair, those who call on the British people to rise up against Brexit, I urge the British people to rise up and turn off the TV next time Tony Blair comes on with his condescending campaign.”

Mr Johnson has criticised Mr Blair for years over his record in the Middle East, especially over his decision to invade Iraq in 2003. In a 2014 article for this newspaper, about Mr Blair defending the Iraq invasion, Mr Johnson wrote: “I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad.

“He wrote an essay ... that struck me as unhinged in its refusal to face facts. In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jawdroppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.”

A Government source said: “It would be stupid not to listen to him. There are few people who have been doing this stuff for longer than Blair.”

Mr Blair’s spokesman confirmed the meetings but declined to comment.