Will Boris speech target Theresa?

BORIS Johnson is preparing a devastating resignation speech revealing why he could no longer back Theresa May on Brexit.

Sources close to the former foreign secretary said he was considering whether to use his right to make a so-called ‘personal statement’ in the Commons on Wednesday, setting out the reasons for his resignation last week.

Mr Johnson, who has been silent since he quit, could speak after Prime Minister’s Questions, while Mrs May is still in the chamber.

Allies of Mrs May are nervous about his next move and suspect him of trying to force her out so he can become prime minister.

The resignation speech of deputy prime minister Sir Geoffrey Howe in 1990 is seen as instrumental in Margaret Thatcher’s downfall. The former foreign secretary quit after disagreeing with Mrs Thatcher over the EU, telling MPs that her attitude to negotiations was ‘like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only to find their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain’.

Sources were tight-lipped about the likely contents of Mr Johnson’s speech last night, but one senior Eurosceptic said he was determined to take revenge on Mrs May, adding: ‘There is a cold fury about Boris, which is unusual for him. He is totally fed up with Mrs May because he feels he’s been tricked.

‘No10 have put it about that David Davis’s resignation forced him to follow suit. But that isn’t the case. He felt she hadn’t been a straight dealer and he had to go.’

As a warm-up to a possible Commons statement, Mr Johnson today writes about his vision of a truly ‘global Britain’ striding forward in the world after Brexit.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he says: ‘It is time for all of us – at this critical moment in our constitutional development – to believe in ourselves, to believe in the British people and what they can do, and in our democracy. People around the world believe passionately in Britain. It’s time we shared their confidence.’

He describes Britain as a ‘first rate military power’, and adds that the UK has ‘the tech capital of the hemisphere’ and ‘the greatest financial centre’.