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. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” Johnson wrote. 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. 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.

Source: The Guardian October 15, 2016 23:15 UTC