British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images Brexit Files Insight Boris Johnson’s guilty conscience Foreign secretary can’t stay quiet on his pro-immigration stance.

Boris Johnson is pro-immigration. This much is not news.

But is Boris Johnson — as at least four unnamed European diplomats claim he said in private – also pro-freedom of movement?

There is a great irony to Johnson's position as foreign secretary. While in European capitals he has become the face of Brexit, remembered solely as the front-man of a campaign that deliberately hyped up people’s concerns about immigration, his personal views on the subject of migration are and always have been extremely cosmopolitan.

Only three years ago, while London mayor, he described himself as “probably about the only politician I know of who is actually willing to stand up and say that he’s pro-immigration.”

Now serving in a government with the professed aim of cutting immigration — a government swept to power by a vote that was to a great extent a protest against immigration — Johnson has displayed visible discomfort.

In his party conference speech in October, he deviated from the pre-approved script that was sent to journalists, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it aside while discussing migration, muttering: “Never mind immigration, which I’m in favor of by the way.”

It seemed as if he was trying to convince himself, or those who know him best, that despite the position he finds himself in, he still holds the convictions he once so proudly displayed.

So what to make of the claims of the European diplomats, that he has said he is personally in favor of free movement, but that this isn’t government policy? The Foreign Office dismissed the claims as a misrepresentation. “He is pro-immigration, but wants to take back control to limit the numbers.” Downing Street, who are watching Johnson’s utterances like hawks, stuck to the same line.

But is it such a stretch to think that a politician who couldn’t get through a very public conference speech without salving his conscience on immigration would not, in the privacy of a diplomatic lunch, go a step further?

It is worth remembering what Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph mere days after the referendum, when he was still favorite to become prime minister.

“Yes, the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry.”

Such a system was ruled out very early on by Theresa May, who suggested at the time that it wouldn’t bring the numbers down sharply enough, and was therefore not in the spirit of the referendum vote.

We know for a fact Johnson thought differently. Perhaps he still does, and perhaps that’s what he was trying to tell his diplomatic friends over luncheon.

This insight is from POLITICO’s Brexit Files newsletter, a daily afternoon digest of the best coverage and analysis of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Read today’s edition or subscribe here.