Brexit hardliner Boris Johnson called on Prime Minister Theresa May to rip up her plan for Britain’s departure from the European Union, ratcheting up pressure on May as she prepares to face her divided party at its annual conference next week.
The former foreign secretary, who left the government over his opposition to May’s “Chequers” proposals, later on Friday swerved the question of whether he might challenge her leadership.
Just six months before Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, little is clear: May has yet to clinch a Brexit divorce deal with the EU and rebels in her party have threatened to vote down any deal she makes.
Adding to the uncertainty, a poll of polls published on Friday showed voters would now vote 52 to 48 per cent in favour of remaining in the EU were there to be another Brexit referendum. May has repeatedly ruled out another referendum.
Johnson, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed May, said her Brexit plans would leave the United Kingdom half in and half out of the club it joined in 1973 and in effective “enforced vassalage”.
“This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and…
