LONDON _ United Kingdom lawmakers called for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to be fired after he threw himself back into the Brexit debate with a newspaper article that was seen as undercutting Prime Minister Theresa May days before she is set to refresh her strategy for the split with the European Union.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph a day after a failed bomb attack in London, the figurehead of last year's campaign to leave the EU outlined what he called a "glorious" vision for the U.K. outside the bloc, prompting criticism that he is undermining May and possibly reviving his own leadership ambitions. Home Secretary Amber Rudd described it as "backseat driving."
"It puts Theresa May in an impossible position, I can't understand why she hasn't fired him," Vince Cable, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said on BBC. "He has a completely and utterly different view of what Brexit means from the rest of the Cabinet," he said, adding that the "civil war" in May's government will hamper talks with the EU.
Unidentified lawmakers in May's Conservative Party were cited by newspapers as demanding Johnson's ouster.
First Secretary of State Damian Green, effectively May's deputy, told Sky News Sunday that Johnson will not lose his job over his intervention or its timing. "The reason is that he, like the rest of the Cabinet, like the prime minister, is all about wanting to get the best deal for the British people," Green said.
Johnson argued that the U.K. should not pay to access Europe's single market for goods and services after Brexit, countering an idea suggested as possible by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis. He also revived the much-criticized claim that by leaving Britain will free up as much as $476 million a week to spend on health care.
Seeking to paint Brexit as positive for the U.K. economy as it shows signs of weakening, Johnson said quitting the EU would allow the government to strike new trade deals, revamp the tax system, reboot infrastructure projects, advance science and improve access to housing.
"This country will succeed in our new national enterprise, and will succeed mightily," he said, dismissing any suggestion that Brexit will be reversed.
