Boris Johnson demands Brexit plane to help bang the drum for Britain’s future outside the EU
BoJo claims the role of Foreign Secretary needed its own aircraft because the PM’s plane - the Voyager - was never available and the Royal Family’s planes are too old
BORIS Johnson last night demanded his own Brexit plane to help bang the drum for Britain’s future outside the EU.
He said the role of Foreign Secretary needed its own aircraft because the PM’s plane - the Voyager - was never available and the Royal Family’s planes are too old.
And Boris - who had to fly via Madrid on commercial flights for his five-day tour of South America - said even Theresa May’s grey RAF plane was boring and bland and suggested it should be repainted a brighter colour in time for Brexit.
But critics ridiculed Mr Johnson’s call for his own aircraft last night - branding it the “Boris vanity plane”.
Senior Tory MP Nicky Morgan, chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, mocked Mr Johnson's call for a Brexit plane.
She told The Sun: "This must surely be a late April Fool’s story. How much does a new plane & fuel eat into Boris’s famous £350m a week for the NHS?"
The cost of a separate plane for the Foreign Secretary would cost an estimated £10 million - the same as the PM’s Voyager.
Mr Johnson insisted the cost must not be “exorbitantly expensive” and could be used by a range of Cabinet ministers on Brexit business around the world, adding: “The taxpayers won’t want us to have some luxurious new plane.”
“But if there’s a way of doing it [getting a plane] that is not exorbitantly expensive then yes I think we probably do need something.”
“What I will say about the Voyager, I think it’s great, but it seems to be very difficult to get hold of. It never seems to be available. I don’t know who uses it, but it never seems to be available.
“And also, why does it have to be grey? The taxpayers won’t want us to have some luxurious new plane.
“But I certainly think it’s striking that we don’t seem to have access to such a thing at the moment.”
But Labour MP Wes Streeting blasted: “Buying a vanity plane for Boris Johnson to fly around the world is an idea that needs to be grounded before take off.
“The idea that when the Government is cutting police and school budgets that they’d throw taxpayers’ money away on something like this is outrageous - but it tells you that Boris Johnson is only ever thinking about Boris Johnson.”
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Mr Johnson also urged people to be much more upbeat on Brexit. He dismissed calls for a Brexit ‘Independence Day’ bank holiday to mark the June 23 vote every year because it wouldn’t help Britain’s productivity but said: “I will certainly be celebrating.
“I think it was Doctor Johnson who said: believe me sir, there is nothing quite so hopeless as a scheme for merriment.
“I don’t think we can impose a celebration on people. I will certainly be celebrating, I would encourage people to celebrate.”