May still has confidence in Johnson despite leaked recording

Theresa May still has confidence in Boris Johnson, Downing Street has said, after the Foreign Secretary attacked the Prime Minister’s Brexit negotiating strategy and criticised the Treasury in a bombshell leaked recording.

Boris Johnson criticised the UK government’s Brexit talks strategy, saying it lacks “guts” and suggested Donald Trump could do a better job.

In a private speech to the Conservative Way Forward group, Johnson is heard dismissing the cautious approach of Philip Hammond’s Treasury, which he said had focused on “mumbo jumbo” predictions about short-term disruption, instead of the potential gains from leaving the EU. He also portrayed the Treasury as “the heart of remain”.

He said the Brexit talks were heading for “meltdown” and Leave supporters may not get the deal they expected.

In the comments, Johnson criticised the significance that the Irish border issue had taken on in the negotiations with Brussels. “It’s so small and there are so few firms that actually use that border regularly, it’s just beyond belief that we’re allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way. We’re allowing the whole of our agenda to be dictated by this folly,” he said.

The foreign secretary was apparently speaking to around 20 people in a private room after an Institute of Directors reception on Wednesday night and the recording of the meeting was leaked.

In the leaked comments, Mr Johnson said the prime minister was “going to go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels”.

He added: “You’ve got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK? I don’t want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It’s going to be all right in the end.”

Brexit will be “irreversible” and will happen, Mr Johnson said, but the “risk is that it will not be the one we want”.

Dispatch based on reports from CNN, Telegraph, BBC, Guardian.