Boris: It was obvious to back Leave

BORIS Johnson has said that it was “blindingly obvious” that he needed to campaign for Brexit in the EU referendum despite admitting that he wrote an article backing Remain to clarify his thinking.

The Foreign Secretary dismissed criticisms of him after a Sunday newspaper published a pro-Remain article he wrote in February just days before declaring for Leave.

He said: “Everybody was trying to make up their minds about whether or not to leave the European Union and it is perfectly true that back in February I was wrestling with it, like I think a lot of people in this country, and I wrote a long piece which came down overwhelmingly in favour of leaving. I then thought I better see if I can make the alternative case for myself so I then wrote a sort of semi-parodic article in the opposite sense, which has mysteriously found its way into the paper because I think I might have sent it to a friend.

“But I set them side by side and it was blindingly obvious what the right thing to do was and I think the people made the right decision, they voted very substantially to leave the European Union, that is what we’re going to do and we’re going to make a great success of it.”

Mr Johnson has since not looked back and is one of the key Government supporters of a so called “clean” Brexit – ensuring Britain quits all the EU’s institutions including membership of the single market. During the referendum he was the face of the Leave campaign and one of its most articulate voices in persuading people to back Brexit by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Last week he insisted that the UK can get a trade deal that is “of greater value” to the economy than access to the EU single market, which he described as an “increasingly useless” concept.

But in the pro-EU article, revealed yesterday, he supported membership of the free-trade zone.

He also said Brexit would cause an “economic shock” and could lead to the “break up” of the United Kingdom.

Opponents tried to claim last night that it proves he made a “political calculation” ahead of the referendum on what would boost his career, a suggestion robustly put down by the Foreign Secretary and his allies.