Speaking about Brexit, Johnson gave a remarkably candid rundown of the arguments that have bitterly divided May’s cabinet.



At the time the dinner took place, the rest of Westminster was gripped by speculation about the future of another disgruntled Brexiteer, David Davis, but Johnson revealed to the activists that he, too, is gravely worried about the direction of the talks.

Johnson insisted he won’t compromise on the final terms of Britain’s future economic relationship, but said the Brexiteers were at risk of getting a deal far worse than they’d hoped for. The government is so terrified of short-term economic disruption that it’s at risk of throwing away the opportunities presented by Brexit, he said. He ridiculed the concerns about disruption at the borders as “pure millennium bug stuff” and said it’s “beyond belief” that the Northern Ireland border has become an obstacle in the negotiations.

Johnson was the keynote speaker at Conservative Way Forward's summer reception at the Institute of Directors on Wednesday night. Other Conservative MPs in attendance included Conor Burns and Priti Patel, the former international development secretary.



At about 8:30pm, a select group of around 20 people went to a private room for a dinner. Over more than an hour, the foreign secretary took questions from the activists and gave a characteristically ebullient and loose-lipped assessment of the most pressing policy and political matters facing the UK government. Burns was also at the private dinner.

Asked about Donald Trump, Johnson was positive about the US president and even joked that he wouldn’t mind having him lead the Brexit negotiations.

“I am increasingly admiring of Donald Trump,” Johnson said. “I have become more and more convinced that there is method in his madness.”

“Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson said. “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.”

Running through the threats and opportunities for Britain’s foreign policy, Johnson said he wanted a “much more energetic” approach to the UK’s diplomacy.

Asked about Russia, he said the UK was taking the lead on trying to combat Kremlin-directed hostility against other countries.

“[Vladimir] Putin feels a deep sense of shame that he’s leader of a country that has been so greatly reduced in its global importance,” Johnson said.

“When I was a kid, Russia really mattered. It’s now got an economy about the size of Australia. Yeah, they’ve got a lot of nuclear weapons, but its real importance in the world is greatly [diminished]. Putin’s a revanchist. He wants to cause trouble. He wants to upset people like us.”

The rest of the world has to be “very firm” in response, Johnson said.

He told the activists May would put forward a new plan at the G7 in Canada to deal with the Kremlin’s aggression.

“On Friday, Theresa May will be in Charlevoix in Canada for the G7,” the foreign secretary said. “She will be putting forward a British plan that will have global support to set up a rapid response unit to identify Russian malfeasance… whether it’s cyberwarfare, assassinations, calling it out and identifying it.”

“One of the problems is Russia is so good at spreading violence,” he continued. “They’re brilliant at it. We need to identify it and call it out.”

Downing Street would not comment on the planned rapid response unit. A source from another G7 state confirmed that the proposal will be discussed at the summit, although it would not specifically mention Russia.

Asked whether China is an ally or a threat, Johnson said: “China is a rival. China is a rival, but China is a rival whose growth and whose incredible developing power can be used to our advantage.”

He added: “We need to engage with China diplomatically, treat China as our friend and our partner, but also recognise that they are our commercial rivals. And they will try to stiff us.”

Johnson warned that Chinese technology companies would take over from the Silicon Valley giants as the world’s most powerful. “The Americans have run the tech world for decades. Microsoft, Google, Apple, blah, blah, blah — we’re used to them winning. No, no, no. The Chinese are about to win. They’ve got 5G. They’ve found out a way. Everybody’s going to be getting stuff on their gizmos through the Chinese system and not the American system. So watch out for that one.”

On disarming North Korea, Johnson said: “Of course we’ve got to help the Americans do this thing... I just talked to Mike Pompeo, my counterpart in the US State Department. What they want us to do is to use our nuclear expertise to dismantle Kim Jong Un’s nuclear missile. That’s what he asked me to do today.”

Johnson said he “would love to” visit North Korea, and believes the UK has influence there. But he said he has no immediate plans to visit.

Speaking about Brexit, Johnson told the Tory activists the talks are approaching a “moment of truth”.

“I’m not going to hide it from you,” Johnson told the activists. “There is an argument going on.”

Brexit will happen, “and I think it will be irreversible”, Johnson said. But he added: “The risk is that it will not be the one we want.”