THERESA May has slapped down Boris Johnson, insisting that the UK Government is “driven from the front” and not by the Foreign Secretary acting as a back-seat driver.
But as the Prime Minister sought to reassert her authority, preparing for a showdown with her Cabinet colleague at the United Nations in New York today, Mr Johnson appeared unrepentant.
He issued a fresh warning about how there could be no extended transition period after Britain left the EU and declared: "We certainly don't want to be paying in extortionate sums for access to the single market. They wouldn't pay for access to our market."
Sidestepping questions on whether or not he would resign if he did not get his way, the Secretary of State said: "You are barking slightly up the wrong tree here."
He added: “As far as back-seat driving…honestly, there’s one driver in the car. It’s Theresa.”
Earlier Mrs May, en route to Canada for talks on trade and security, was asked if she was frustrated with her Mr Johnson. She replied: “Boris is Boris. I'm clear that what the Government is doing and what the Cabinet is doing is that we...base our negotiations on the principles set out at Lancaster House."
She went on: "This Government is driven from the front and we are all going to the same destination because we are all agreed on the basis of the Lancaster House speech.
"We are all agreed as a Government about the importance of ensuring the right deal for Britain, the right withdrawal agreement but also the right deal on a special partnership between the EU and UK for the future.
"We are all optimistic about what we can be achieving for the UK for the future," added the PM.
In a separate development, Mrs May sought to take more personal control of the Brexit process with the appointment of a senior Whitehall official leading Britain's negotiating team in Brussels as her adviser on the European Union.
Oliver Robbins has been moved from Brexit Secretary David Davis's department to the advisory position in the Cabinet Office but will "continue to lead the official-side UK team" in negotiations, a UK Government spokesman said.
At the UN, where the PM will speak on Wednesday, Mr Johnson, who was warmly welcomed at the UN by US President Donald Trump, sought to play down reports he was at odds with Chancellor Philip Hammond and Mr Davis.
He described his controversial 4,000-word unauthorised article as an "opening drum roll" for the PM’s keynote speech in Florence on Friday.
"Let's not try and find rows when there really aren't rows," he declared. "I was involved in that Brexit campaign quite a lot. People want to know where we are going. It is a good thing to have a bit of an opening drum roll about what this country can do."
Meanwhile, Mrs May stopped short of claiming unanimous backing for her forthcoming speech, in which she is widely expected to offer a compromise on Britain's financial settlement with the EU.
Following suggestions that she will say Britain is ready to pay as much as £10 billion a year to the EU during a three-year transition period, Mr Johnson made clear in his Daily Telegraph article at the weekend that he believed no payments whatsoever should be made after Brexit.
The PM conspicuously did not rally to the Foreign Secretary’s defence in his row with Sir David Norgrove, the Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, who has accused him of a "clear misuse" of official figures in his claim that Brexit will give the UK control of £350 million a week, much of which could be spent on the NHS.
Asked if she trusted Sir David or Mr Johnson to be right on the figures, Mrs May said only: "The reality is that year on year, the money the UK pays into the European Union changes because of a whole variety of factors."
She made clear that the decision on whether or not any money freed up by Brexit should go into the NHS had not yet been made and was not one for Mr Johnson alone to decide.
Earlier, the Foreign Secretary received the backing of his Cabinet colleague Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, who worked closely with him on the Vote Leave campaign but dramatically fell out with him over the Tory leadership battle.
Amid the row over the claim of a £350m a week Brexit dividend, the Scot tweeted it was "important people look at what Boris actually wrote" in his article and the "debate should be forward looking on how to make most of life outside EU; not refighting referendum".
But Tobias Ellwood, the Defence minister, publicly acknowledged there was "discord" in Conservative ranks over Brexit, tweeting: "Think many would agree we are not witnessing our finest hour, at a testing time when poise, purpose and unity are called for."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel