Boris Johnson has joked that Donald Trump would do a good job of handling Brexit in a leaked recording where he also took aim at Theresa May’s plans.
The foreign secretary confessed he was “increasingly admiring” of Mr Trump and suggested “you might get somewhere” if the US president was leading the negotiations.
Speaking at a private dinner with Tory supporters, Mr Johnson warned there could be a Brexit ”meltdown” as the UK prepares to take a tougher line with Brussels.
His comments emerged as Ms May managed to broker a fragile truce with David Davis, the Brexit secretary, who reportedly threatened to resign over her “backstop” plan for future customs arrangements.
“I am increasingly admiring of Donald Trump,” Mr Johnson said, in a recording obtained by Buzzfeed.
“I have become more and more convinced that there is method in his madness.”
“Imagine Trump doing Brexit... He’d go in bloody hard…There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos.
“Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.”
The leading Brexiteer laid bare divisions in the cabinet, telling activists “there is an argument going on” but he believed that Brexit would happen and it would be “irreversible”.
But he added: “The risk is that it will not be the one we want.”
Mr Johnson warned against keeping Britain “locked in orbit around the EU, in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market.
“So not really having full freedom on our trade policy, our tariff schedules, and not having freedom with our regulatory framework either.”
He blamed Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Treasury officials for pushing this agenda, which he described as “basically the heart of Remain”.
Mr Johnson also said the Northern Irish border row had been blown out of proportion and compared fears over disruption over vital goods coming into the UK to “pure millennium bug stuff”.
The prime minister is going to be “much more combative with Brussels” going forward, which could lead to friction, he said.
“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.”
A source close to Mr Johnson said: “This was a private dinner under Chatham House rules [where all comments are unattributable] so it is sad and very disappointing that it has been covertly recorded and distributed to the media.”
