Boris puts pressure on May to deliver a hard Brexit

BORIS Johnson has thrown his weight behind a new group putting pressure on Theresa May to deliver a ‘hard Brexit’.

In the latest sign of tensions between the Brexiteer Ministers and No10, the Foreign Secretary will help the Change Britain group to demand measures such as pulling the UK out of the single market.

Change Britain, which launches today, is backed by an array of high-profile Brexiteers including former Tory leadership contender Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor Nigel Lawson and David Cameron’s former adviser Steve Hilton.

The aim is to ensure Mrs May does not try to negotiate a form of ‘Brexit-lite’ involving compromises over immigration controls in exchange for greater access to the single market.

In a video address to mark the campaign’s launch, Mr Johnson said: ‘Brexit means Brexit and that means delivering on their [voters’] instructions and restoring UK control over our laws, borders, money and trade.’

The third Brexiteer, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, was yesterday dealing with the backlash from his claim in a speech to activists that Britain was ‘too lazy and too fat’ with businessmen preferring ‘golf on a Friday afternoon’ to winning new export deals.

Innocent Drinks founder Richard Reed said Dr Fox was a ‘terrible, terrible voice for British business’.