Iain Duncan Smith has backed Boris Johnson’s claim that the EU has the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political superstate, despite the remain camp branding the comments “offensive and desperate”.

The former mayor of London drew criticism on Saturday after making the link between the EU and the Nazi dictator in a newspaper interview. While he acknowledged the EU was using “different methods” to the Nazis, his incendiary comparison quickly enraged remain campaigners.



In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson, seen as the de facto leader of the leave campaign, said the past 2,000 years of European history had been dominated by doomed attempts to unify the continent under a single government to recreate the “golden age” of the Romans.

“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods,” he said.



“But fundamentally, what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void.”

As the remarks were condemned as inflammatory and offensive by Labour and Tory remain campaigners, Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, said Johnson’s interview was “rather good”.

Defending Johnson’s use of “historical parallels”, Duncan Smith said: “He talked about this nonsensical idea of trying to drive these different countries [together]. It’s a historical fact of life that if you go through Napoleon, Hitler, everyone else … I think the whole process of trying to drive Europe together by force or by bureaucracy ultimately makes problems.”

Responding to the comments, the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, said: “Leave campaigners have lost the economic argument and now they are losing their moral compass.

“After the horror of the second world war, the EU helped to bring an end to centuries of conflict in Europe, and for Boris Johnson to make this comparison is both offensive and desperate.”

The former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper, a member of the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign, accused Johnson of playing a “nasty, nasty game”.

“The more he flails around with this kind of hysterical claim, the more he exposes his shameful lack of judgement, his willingness to play the most divisive cynical politics, and the emptiness of his arguments,” she said.

“One week it is dog-whistle attacks on President Obama. Now he is trying to liken the institution that has kept peace on our continent for decades with Hitler, who pursued the genocide of millions of innocent people.

“All because he is desperately seeking headlines for a desperate campaign. He should not try to play political games with the darkest and most sinister chapter of Europe’s history. The EU has played a critical role keeping peace in Europe ever since.”

Lord Bramall, the former chief of the defence staff, who took part in the Normandy landings, said: “I know only too well, this comparison of the EU and Nazi Germany is absurd. Hitler’s main aim was to create an empire in the east and violently subjugate Europeans. Any connection between that and the EU is simply laughable.”

Sir Eric Pickles, the Conservative former communities secretary, drew a comparison between Johnson and Ken Livingstone, a former London mayor, who was suspended from Labour for suggesting Hitler supported Zionism. He said: “If the last few weeks tell us anything: it is rarely a help to mention Hitler in support of an argument by an ex-mayor of London.”

Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, said Johnson was “yet another tuppenny tin-pot imitation Churchill promising to ‘fight them on the beaches’ while weakening our defences and wrecking our economy.”

Owen Smith, a Labour shadow cabinet minister, said Johnson was “a cut-rate Donald Trump.” “It’s a ridiculous and facetious comment by a man who is apt to make ridiculous and facetious comments,” Smith told LBC. “I’d be mortified if Boris Johnson was made leader of the Tory party, because it will say something profoundly awful about British politics.”

“I think he is a showman, and an effective class clown if you like, but the class clown tends to be disruptive, as I think he would be if he had the chance to put his silly views into practice.”

The Conservative former chancellor Norman Lamont also came to Johnson’s defence, saying it was a “fact there were fascist theorists who believed very strongly in a united Europe”.

Boris Johnson holds a Cornish pasty as he boards the Vote Leave campaign bus in Truro, Cornwall. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Lord Lamont said the headline for Johnson’s comments was misleading, telling Murnaghan on Sky News: “I don’t think [Johnson] was saying people who favour the European Union were comparable to Nazis.

“He was simply saying that historically, from the Romans, Charlemagne, Napoleon, there have been all sorts of attempts to dominate Europe and these have all floundered because Europe is not naturally one entity.”

Asked if Johnson’s remarks were helpful to the leave campaign, Lamont said: “I don’t actually think what he said, as it was said, was so outrageous. I think the headline is misleading.”

Pressed on whether he wished Johnson had not made the comments, Lamont said: “I myself referred not so long ago but was very careful to say, ‘I’m not comparing people who support Europe to Nazis’, but it actually is a fact there were fascist theorists who believed very strongly in a united Europe.”

Johnson made the comments in a newspaper interview after touring the south-west on a Vote Leave battlebus, as speculation grows that he will make a move for the Tory leadership if Cameron resigns in the event of a British exit from the EU or narrow remain vote.

On Sunday, the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, backed Johnson to succeed Cameron if this happens, describing himself as a “Boris fan” and comparing him to the former US president Ronald Reagan.



Cameron has always insisted that he will carry on regardless of the result, but many MPs believe he will have no choice but to resign if the country rejects his call to remain or only narrowly votes to stay.

Nigel Farage on Peston on Sunday. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex

In comments clearly designed to stoke tensions within the Conservative party over the referendum, Farage said he could even envisage a situation in which he would work for Johnson in government.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Farage rejected suggestions that Johnson would not be serious enough to be prime minister if Cameron were forced to stand down. “Boris goes on surprising people. They say he can’t do this, he’s a joker – it’s like Ronnie Reagan. Could he do it? Yes. If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said no, but I’ve changed my mind,” he said.

Asked if he would like to work for Johnson if there were a vote to leave the EU, Farage said: “I love Boris, respect him, admire him; I’m a Boris fan. Could I work for him? Yes. Could I see a scenario if he was PM and he asked me to do something? I wouldn’t rule it out.”

In an interview with Peston on Sunday, he also revealed he would back Republican candidate Donald Trump for US president over Democrat Hillary Clinton while acknowledging he had reservations about him.

“You put me up against a wall, it’s got to be him, not Hillary – but I have reservations: encouraging people to beat up protesters, one or two things like that bother me. But I’ll tell you what: I think he’s going to win,” he said.