The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Johnson delivers EU blackmail warning
Former foreign secretary speaks out as Brexit showdown nears
Boris Johnson refused to rule out challenging Prime Minister Theresa May for the Tory leadership as he warned her Brexit deal left the UK open to “blackmail” by Brussels.
The former foreign secretary said it was “nonsense” to suggest he had already begun offering jobs in a future Johnson administration to fellow Tories, but sidestepped the opportunity to promise not to stand against Mrs May.
He said her Brexit deal could get through the Commons if it was stripped of the backstop measure – an insurance policy to prevent a hard border with Ireland – insisting that would be “relatively simple” to achieve.
Another Brexiteer ex-Cabinet minister, Esther McVey, said she would give “serious concern” to standing for the leadership.
Mr Johnson, one of the leading players in the Leave campaign in the referendum, said people should not “underestimate the deep sense of personal responsibility I feel for Brexit”.
Mrs May’s future hangs in the balance, with a heavy defeat in tomorrow’s Commons showdown likely to lead to fresh pressure on her leadership. Asked to give an “absolute, categorical promise” that he would not stand against the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: “I will give you an absolute, categorical promise that I will continue to advocate what I think is the most sensible plan.”
Challenged on whether he had already begun speaking to colleagues to offer roles in his future government, Mr Johnson told the Andrew Marr Show: “That’s nonsense.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said he could not sit in a Boris cabinet. The Borders MP said: “Mr Johnson and I do not agree on a range of issues. I don’t see myself as being able to serve in that way.”
Setting out his Brexit plan, Mr Johnson said resolving the Irish border issue should be postponed so it forms part of the talks on a future trade deal and the UK should withhold a “substantial chunk” of the £39 billion divorce bill until that deal is done.
Preparations should also be stepped up for a no-deal Brexit, he said.
He admitted he would feel personally responsible if people lost their jobs in a no-deal departure from the EU.
“Of course I will,” he said. “Do not underestimate the deep sense of personal responsibility I feel for Brexit and for everything that has happened.
“Do not underestimate how much I care about this because this is fundamental to our country and it absolutely breaks my heart to think that – after all that we fought for, all that we campaigned for, all that (Brexit secretary) Steve Barclay campaigned for, everybody believes in – we should consign ourselves to a future in which the EU effectively rules us in many respects and yet we have no say round the table in Brussels.
“That is an absurdity. We cannot go down that route.”
Asked about her leadership ambitions, Ms McVey said: “I’ve seen the array of people who have come forward and I think if we can all get behind one, for me the most important thing is not the personalities, it is the deal for our country needs to be better.”
She added: “If people asked me, then of course you’d give it serious concern.”