Tories blast gunboat diplomacy

BORIS JOHNSON has come under fire as Tories row over his Brexit plan.

Gunboats are being prepared for any ‘punch-up’ with ‘stormy’ French fishermen as last-minute negotiations with the EU rumble on. The MoD has confirmed that four craft are on standby to stop EU trawlers using British waters, assuming there is no new agreement on fishing rights after December 31.

But the threat has been criticised by other members of Mr Johnson’s party, with Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, calling it ‘irresponsible’, while former European Commissioner Lord Patten accused the PM of behaving like an ‘English nationalist’.

Lord Patten added that Mr Johnson was on a ‘runaway train of English exceptionalism’ in thinking NoDeal would allow the nation to prosper. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘While I hope for the best, I do fear for the worst because it is very, very difficult to see what the plan is.’