Boris Johnson today denied Brexit was a ‘great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover’ but about Britain regaining its global identity.
In a major speech to call on Leavers and Remainers to unite behind the Brexit mission, the Foreign Secretary insisted quitting the EU was a cause for ‘hope not fear’.
Mr Johnson denied the vote was a ‘plague of boils’ on Britain or a ‘reactionary Faragiste concept’ and called on his ‘remaining Remainer friends’ to rally behind a ‘Liberal Brexit’.
In a signal of continuing Cabinet divisions, Mr Johnson warned Theresa May that Britain must never be subject to laws it had no hand in writing as the EU demands the right to impose rules during the Brexit transition.
But he also admitted to detecting a ‘hardening of the mood, a deepening of the anger’ over the June 2016 vote.
Mr Johnson acknowledged he was divisive but insisted ‘people’s feelings matter’ and that he wanted to engage with critics.
Boris Johnson (pictured today in Westminster) warned cancelling Brexit would be a ‘disastrous mistake’ but acknowledged for the first time that anger at the result was ‘hardening’
In a major speech titled ‘A United Kingdom’, Boris Johnson (pictured this morning speaking at Policy Exchange) called on Leave and Remain campaigners to come together for the future of the country
Speaking at Policy Exchange in Westminster (pictured) the Foreign Secretary admitted opposition Brexit was ‘hardening’ but insisted ‘these fears can be allayed’
Mr Johnson was greeted by protesters at the central London venue for his big Brexit speech
In his rallying call across the Brexit divide, Mr Johnson:
- Insisted Brexit was about voters’ desire for a ‘government of the people, by the people for the people’
- Rejected calls for a second referendum on the deal, insisting it would mean ‘another year of wrangling and turmoil and feuding in which the whole country would lose’
- Admitted he was a divisive figure because of the Vote Leave campaign and said he knew some people would refuse to listen to his message
- Warned Theresa May that while existing EU laws would stay in place during the transition period, new diktats must not be handed down by Brussels
- Insisted any move to cancel Brexit would be ‘mad’ and a ‘disastrous mistake’ as he said the vote against the EU had secured an historic number of votes
Mr Johnson said: ‘Brexit is about re-engaging this country with its global identity & all the energy that can flow from that.
‘And I absolutely refuse to accept the suggestion that it is some unBritish spasm of bad manners.
‘It’s not some great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover.’
He added: ‘Brexit is the expression of a legitimate and natural desire for self-government of the people, by the people, for the people.
‘And that is surely not some reactionary Faragiste concept’.
Mr Johnson argued efforts by Remain-supporting ministers to keep Britain closely aligned with Brussels rules after Brexit would not amount to ‘taking back control’.
The British people should not have new laws imposed from abroad, he declared, extolling the benefits of leaving the EU’s customs union and the single market.
In a warning to Mrs May ahead of the next phase of negotiations – in which the EU is demanding the right to impose EU laws during the transition – Mr Johnson said: ‘If we are going to accept laws, then we need to know who is making them, and with what motives, and we need to be able to interrogate them in our own language, and we must know how they came to be in authority over us and how we can remove them.’
Mr Johnson insisted Brexit was about ‘self confidence’ and rejected the calls for a second referendum
Mr Johnson (pictured during today’s speech) denied Brexit was a ‘reactionary Faragiste concept’ but a legitimate ‘desire for self government of the people by the people’
He added: ‘People voted Leave – not because they were hostile to European culture and civilisation, but because they wanted to take back control.
‘That is why it is so vital not to treat Brexit as a plague of boils or a murrain on our cattle, but as an opportunity’.
In a message to Remainers, he said: ‘More people voted Brexit than have ever voted for anything in the history of this country.
‘I say in all candour that if there were to be a second vote I believe that we would simply have another year of wrangling and turmoil and feuding in which the whole country would lose.’
Leading Remainers branded the Foreign Secretary’s intervention ‘deeply cynical and dishonest’ and dismissed his Valentine’s Day offer of an olive branch.
Lord Adonis, the former Labour Cabinet minister, condemned Mr Johnson as a ‘charlatan’.
He said: ‘We are in this mess because his motto was the most infamous line in Milton: ”Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”.’
Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Soames rejected Mr Johnson’s claim that Brexit could deliver Britain’s global mission.
As the Foreign Secretary spoke, he tweeted: ‘You can’t go Global unless you have a properly adequately resourced Diplomatic Service and Armed Forces capable of doing the business.’
Andrew Cooper, a pollster who was director of strategy for David Cameron before being sent to the House of Lords, wrote on Twitter: ‘Vote Leave made a Farageist, not *liberal* case for Brexit.
‘Cutting immigration & boosting the NHS is what Johnson, Gove & co. sold to the British people. Deeply cynical & dishonest for Johnson to try to re-frame Brexit as *liberal* now.’
Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach – one of the leading Remainer rebels on the Conservative benches – also poured scorn on the speech.
She wrote: ‘Reports of Johnson speech seem to indicate we shouldn’t be subject to EU laws as we can’t influence them.
‘However that is inevitable consequence of Brexit, if we want to continue to export to EU we have to comply with their rules!!’
Mr Johnson’s demand that Britain should have a clean break from Brussels rules will ratchet up the pressure on Theresa May, who is seeking to find a compromise to please the warring factions of her Cabinet.
The dramatic intervention comes as Theresa May (pictured outside Stormont on Monday) prepares to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday as the Government steps up efforts to make progress on Brexit
During talks, Mr Johnson has faced resistance from Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured lin Downing Street last week) and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who fear moving too far from EU regulations could damage existing export markets
During talks, Mr Johnson has faced resistance from Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who fear moving too far from EU regulations could damage existing export markets.
Some Tories fear the Foreign Secretary could walk out of the Government if the Prime Minister attempts a fudge that does not see Britain fully go its own way after Brexit.
Meanwhile, in a newspaper article today, Mr Johnson described Britain’s departure from the EU as ‘the great project of our age’.
Writing in The Sun, he said: ‘When the history books come to be written, Brexit will be seen as just the latest way in which the British bucked the trend and took the initiative – and did something that responds to the needs and opportunities of the world today.’
His speech is the first of six by Mrs May and Cabinet members to set out the Government’s road map for Brexit.
Brexit Secretary David Davis, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Mrs May’s deputy David Lidington are set to speak in coming weeks.
In Westminster this morning, Mr Johnson warned Europhiles that efforts to stay in the EU would permanently damage the trust of voters.
‘I fear some people are becoming ever more determined to stop Brexit, to reverse the referendum vote of June 23, 2016, and to frustrate the will of the people,’ he said.
‘I believe that would be a disastrous mistake that would lead to permanent and ineradicable feelings of betrayal. We cannot and will not let it happen.
‘But if we are to carry this project through to national success, as we must, we must also reach out to those who still have anxieties.’
He added: ‘I want to try today to anatomise at least some of those fears and to show to the best of my ability that they are unfounded and that the very opposite is usually true – that Brexit is not grounds for fear but hope.’
Reaching out to Remainers, Mr Johnson said the country ‘must not repeat the mistakes of the past when pro-EU voices too often ignored the voices of those who opposed EU membership’.
‘It is not good enough to say to Remainers – you lost, get over it; because we must accept that many are actuated by entirely noble sentiments, a real sense of solidarity with our European neighbours and a desire for the UK to succeed,’ he said.
But Mr Johnson, who yesterday returned to work in London after a tour of south Asia, also took a swipe at the leaked civil servant reports which claimed Britain would be better off if it stays closely tied to Brussels.
Leading Tory Remainer Antoinette Sandbach poured scorn on Boris Johnson’s speech on the Twitter – saying Britain will have to stick to EU rules if it wants to sell to the bloc
He said: ‘The British people should not have new laws affecting their everyday lives imposed from abroad, when they have no power to elect or remove those who make those laws …
‘To those who worry about coming out of the customs union or the single market – please bear in mind that the economic benefits of membership are nothing like as conspicuous or irrefutable as is sometimes claimed.’
Mr Johnson added: ‘It is only by taking back control of our laws that UK firms and entrepreneurs will have the freedom to innovate, without the risk of having to comply with some directive devised by Brussels …
‘That would be intolerable, undemocratic, and would make it all but impossible for us to do serious free trade deals.’
But Lib Dem MP and Brexit spokesman Tom Brake was dismissive of the Foreign Secretary’s pitch to lead the charge for a ‘liberal Brexit’.
‘If this speech was supposed to offer an olive branch to Remainers, Boris must have picked up the other version,’ he said.
‘If Boris is seeking to establish himself as the standard bearer of liberalism, he should dump plans to come out of the Single Market and Customs Union and campaign to stay in the world’s largest free trade area.
‘He could also bolster his liberal credentials by giving people a vote on the deal and an exit from Brexit.’