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Secret Boris Johnson column favoured UK remaining in EU Boris Johnson secret newspaper column favoured UK remaining in EU
(about 9 hours later)
In a previously secret newspaper column, Boris Johnson said that Britain remaining in the European Union would be a “boon for the world and for Europe” Boris Johnson said that Britain remaining in the European Union would be a “boon for the world and for Europe” in an unpublished newspaper column in which he wrestled with his decision to back or oppose Brexit.
The foreign secretary wrote the unpublished remain-backing article only two days before shocking David Cameron by revealing he would be campaigning for Brexit. In an unpublished Telegraph column, written days before a published version in which the foreign secretary backed leaving, Johnson wrote of the EU: “This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?”
Johnson is now seen as a backer of a hard Brexit, this week insisting 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 in a new book and published in the Sunday Times, he supported membership of the free trade zone. “This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” Johnson wrote. The column, published in the Sunday Times, is highly critical both of the EU as an institution and the renegotiation deal sought by David Cameron. “We are being outvoted ever more frequently,” Johnson writes. “The ratchet of integration clicks remorselessly forward.
“There is going to be more and more of this stuff ; and I can see why people might just think, to hell with it. I want out. I want to take back control of our democracy and our country.
“If you feel that, I perfectly understand — because half the time I have been feeling that myself. And then the other half of the time, I have been thinking: hmmm. I like the sound of freedom; I like the sound of restoring democracy. But what are the downsides – and here we must be honest.”
Sources close to Johnson said he wrote the article for the sole purpose of trying to articulate in his mind whether there was any merit in the remain argument and dismissed it out of hand as soon as he finished.Sources close to Johnson said he wrote the article for the sole purpose of trying to articulate in his mind whether there was any merit in the remain argument and dismissed it out of hand as soon as he finished.
He also warned that Brexit would cause an “economic shock” and could lead to the “break-up” of the United Kingdom in the article revealed in the book, All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class, by the Sunday Times political editor, Tim Shipman. He also warned that Brexit would cause an “economic shock” and could lead to the “break-up” of the United Kingdom in the article revealed in the book, All Out War: the Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class, by the Sunday Times political editor, Tim Shipman.
“There is the worry about Scotland, and the possibility that an English-only “leave” vote could lead to the break-up of the union,” he wrote. “There is the Putin factor: we don’t want to do anything to encourage more shirtless swaggering from the Russian leader, not in the Middle East, not anywhere.”
The book claims Johnson “wanted to punch” his Brexit ally Michael Gove after the former justice secretary announced his own bid to become prime minister on the morning of Johnson’s speech that was to announce his candidacy, a move that ended up destroying both men’s chances and paving the way for Theresa May.
The book also claims Sir Lynton Crosby told Johnson to support Brexit once Cameron had ignored the election strategist’s advice to delay the referendum.The book also claims Sir Lynton Crosby told Johnson to support Brexit once Cameron had ignored the election strategist’s advice to delay the referendum.
Among the other revelations, the remain campaign’s digital specialist, Jim Messina, apparently described Cameron’s pollster Andrew Cooper as “the worst I’ve ever worked with” for getting his forecasts about the vote dramatically wrong. Among the other revelations, the remain campaign’s digital specialist, Jim Messina, apparently described Cameron’s pollster Andrew Cooper as “the worst I’ve ever worked with” for getting his forecasts about the vote wrong.
And it said Johnson “wanted to punch” Michael Gove after his Leave campaign ally ran in the subsequent Tory leadership race alone and in effect torpedoed the former London mayor’s candidacy and hopes of becoming prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Treasury has described as “totally untrue” a Mail on Sunday claim that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, was set to quit the government over its apparent shift towards leaving the single market. Lucy Thomas, former deputy director of Stronger In, said the column demonstrated how much of the decision was about Johnson’s political career. “None of it is about the detail, none of it is about what life outside the EU looks like, there was no thinking about prices going up or what would happen to jobs. It is purely ‘was the renegotiation enough? is the status quo the right thing?’”