Britain will be ‘gravitationally sucked back into the EU’ if Sir Keir Starmer becomes PM, fears Boris Johnson

BRITAIN will be “gravitationally sucked back into the orbit of the EU” if Sir Keir Starmer becomes PM, Boris Johnson fears.

In his first major interview since being toppled from No10, BoJo called the Labour leader a “snoozefest” and said the Tories can win the next election despite dire polls.

But he urged PM Rishi Sunak to cut taxes, get the economy growing and start banging the drum for the “benefits of Brexit”.

It came as Business Secretary Grant Shapps accused Sir Keir of wanting to drag the UK into the “nightmare” world of the EU.

The Tory pair gave Labour both barrels ahead of the third anniversary of Brexit day, on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with Nadine Dorries on Friday Night with Nadine on TalkTV to be shown on Friday, Boris said Brexit is not safe in Labour’s hands.

He said: “I think that you’d have a very interesting situation, they would be gravitationally sucked back into the orbit of the EU.

“I think that would be very wrong for the country.

“It would lose us a lot of opportunities that we currently have.”

Bojo accused Sir Keir of being too boring and in hock to his union paymasters to win the next election — expected at the end of 2024.

He added: “Old Sir Crasheroonie Snoozefest the human bollard — Keir Starmer, that is — he thinks that he’s going to get people to vote Labour just by standing there and doing nothing.

“It’s not going to happen.”

He is also backing Mr Sunak to improve the country’s fortunes.

He said: “The economy will start to improve, inflation will come down, people will reward the Conservative Party, they will reward the Government for being sensible, for cutting their taxes and for getting things done that they need done.”

Labour will hike taxes even higher if they get a sniff of power, he claimed.

In a slight dig at Mr Sunak, he said taxes will need to be cut.

He added: “Certainly what I can say with confidence is that the fiscal position was pretty robust when I left office, we had scope to do all sorts of things and we were going to do them.

“And I have no doubt that when the time comes, the Government will make sure that they start to reduce the tax burden and get the economy growing again and that is what needs to happen.”

In a rallying cry to his party Mr Johnson insisted they can still achieve an historic fifth successive term in office.

He said: “The fact is that the Conservative Party can certainly win the next election.”

Bojo’s blistering attack came as Mr Shapps also took aim at Labour’s approach to Brexit.

It comes amid growing fears that Brexit is in peril and senior Labour figures could be secretly plotting for us to rejoin.

Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan — one of the party’s most senior figures — has openly called for Britain to go back into the single market — leaving us chained to EU rules.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday, the Business Secretary said: “We do not want to be getting back into years of Brexit shenanigans.

“I genuinely think - Sir Keir Starmer voted against it 45 times - that he will take us back into that nightmare world of the things that I think the British people are well and truly fed-up of.”

An ex-Remainer, Mr Shapps has now become Britain’s lead Brexit cheerleader — in charge of tearing up hated EU regulations, attracting investors and creating jobs.

He said Brexit has helped UK businesses in “thousands of ways” by letting us axe red tape.

This includes plans to ditch barmy EU rules which make bosses treat lithium — a key ingredient in electric car batteries - like uranium, a toxic nuclear material.

A new battery plant in Teesside will provide enough lithium to power a whopping 8 per cent of all the electric cars and phones in Europe, he said.

Mr Shapps said the plant founder had told him axing the EU rules allowed it to happen.

He said: “That’s why he’s doing the investment here. And there’s another factory doing the same thing next door.

“These are high quality jobs, high tech industry … a total Brexit freedom when that we just wouldn’t have otherwise.

“There are thousands of these now, coming about quietly and consistently, every day.

“These new powers are enabling us to make laws which are benefiting the British economy.

“That is why our unemployment level is nearly twice as low as, say, France for example.”

Brexit will also unlock £100billion in new investment in new tech and green energy by axing red tape, he added.

The EU’s Solvency II financial regulations — which limit how much capital big insurance funds can invest — are being scrapped.

Mr Shapps said this cash will be used to build new wind farms and vast solar panel farms on the roofs of industrial buildings — creating “energy sovereignty” and lower electricity bills.

Sir Keir has repeatedly claimed he will not reverse Brexit.

But speaking out at the Davos economic summit earlier this month he said: “All we have got at the moment is a deal and not a very good deal for the whole of the United Kingdom and we need to improve on that.”

He added: “We need closer trading relations, we need better joint work on research and technology, we need stronger security arrangements.”