Boris: Leaving EU would
BRITAIN could have a “wonderful” future outside the EU, top Tory Boris Johnson said yesterday.
The London mayor, a leading figure in the Leave campaign for the referendum, said the country had a “golden opportunity” to break free from “antidemocratic” Brussels bureaucracy.
He likened membership of the 28- nation bloc to imprisonment.
Mr Johnson said: “This is like the jailer has accidentally left the door of the jail open and people can see the sunlit land beyond and everybody’s suddenly wrangling about the terrors of the world outside. Actually it will be wonderful. And it would be a huge weight lifted from British business.”
Defied
MP Mr Johnson defied David Cameron yesterday by setting out his vision for Britain’s future outside the EU in an interview on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show.
It came amid fresh signs that the Tory split over Europe is deepening. A survey of local Conservative Party chairmen by the BBC yesterday found that fewer than one in four will side with Mr Cameron and vote for Britain to stay in the EU in the referendum on June 23.
Of the 128 local chairmen and chairwomen who responded to the BBC survey, 54 said they would vote to leave and 31 backed a remain vote. The remainder said they had yet to make up their minds.
Mr Johnson revealed that he decided to back the Leave campaign when Government lawyers ruled out any sig- nificant legal changes to return sovereignty from Brussels to Westminster.
He had put forward a plan for new legislation but they “blew up” and said the idea was not compatible with EU law.
Mr Johnson added: “We were told that there was going to be fundamental reform. We didn’t achieve that. And I think that the lesson of the whole business has been that reform is not achievable. For the last few years I have said very clearly that if we didn’t get reform then we should be prepared to walk away.
“I think we now have a golden opportunity to shrug off a regulatory legislative burden that is profoundly antidemocratic.”
Mr Johnson also dismissed suggestions that Mr Cameron will be forced to resign if Britain votes to quit the EU as “cobblers”.
He added: “Certainly not. We have a wonderful Prime Minister. To the best of my knowledge there is not a single EU leader in the last 20 years who has had to step down as a result of a referendum on Europe or not, so I think the whole thing is a load of cobblers.”
Meanwhile, questions continued to be raised yesterday about the suspension of John Longworth, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, after suggesting the UK could have a “brighter” future outside the EU.
Mr Johnson said: “It’s very sad that someone like John Longworth, who shares my view, who has great experi-