BoJo vows to ‘smash it out of the park’ as PM and to end the UK’s ‘diet of misery’ in his most frank interview yet
BORIS Johnson has vowed to put Britain back on a winning streak with his unique style of leadership and predicts: “We can smash it out of the park.”
The Prime Minister-in-waiting says he will end the “diet of misery” inflicted on the nation and put a spring back in everyone’s step.
He pledged to deliver Brexit in under 100 days and then set about building a fresh spirit of optimism.
The hot favourite for the Tory leadership admitted he will make a “different sort” of PM — avoiding a repeat of Theresa May’s cautious approach for a more swashbuckling style.
In an interview with The Sun on Sunday, he insisted he will be batting for Britain with “maximum energy” and fighting to win.
Mr Johnson said: “For the last three years, quite frankly, we’ve had nothing but a diet of miserabilism.
"We can’t do this, we can’t do that. You know, ‘Computer says no’. And it’s really wretched.
“I think probably I’m going to be a different sort of Prime Minister in the sense that throughout my political career, I’ve tended to go for my shots.
“Sometimes I get out and sometimes I hit some runs.
"So let’s knock it out of the park. Well, I think, at least have a go.”
Mr Johnson spoke openly about his own strengths and flaws as he prepared for the final run-in, which could see him enter 10 Downing Street in 17 days’ time.
In a frank and wide-ranging interview, he revealed his key goals if he seizes the crown.
On EU line-up
BRITAIN will continue to work closely with new Brussels bureaucrats under a Bojo-led government.
But he said their vision of a European superstate with its own army vindicates our decision to leave.
Mr Johnson said he “got on well” with new EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, adding: “Well, she’s in favour of creating a federal Europe.
"She wants the EU to morph into a kind of Switzerland with the UK turning into a kind of Canton. That’s not the future I envisage.”
He has vowed to:
- BOOST the spending power of the low-paid with higher wages and a possible cut in VAT.
- CHALLENGE senior EU chiefs to “look deep into our eyes” before they call our bluff over Brexit again.
- RULE out striking an election pact with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
- EXPOSE the “deranged” policies of Jeremy Corbyn and make sure he never gets his hands on the levers of power.
Mr Johnson accepts his most pressing priority will be to drive through Brexit by October 31 — and failure is not an option.
He said: “Very often, getting things done is about the approach that you take.
“This country has had an awful lot in the last three years of being told that it can’t do X, Y and Z because it’s all too difficult. And that’s not true.
“I genuinely think we can do it. And so my pitch to the country is that, yes, we have issues to address and we have problems that we must fix, but they’re fixable.
“One we fix them, there will be new problems — and we’ll fix them, too.”
On police
COMBATING crime will be top of the agenda if Mr Johnson wins the keys to Number 10.
He promised to give cops the cash and “top cover” they need to do their challenging and dangerous job.
He said: “They deserve the political support, as well as funding.
“Crime is number one. Everything flows from safer streets — investment, confidence of kids to cycle to school, which in turn helps tackle obesity.
"We shall work to recruit the extra 20,000 officers that I have promised.”
Mr Johnson believes his mission will be to help the Conservative party and the nation to recover their self-belief.
He wants people to feel they have a stake in Britain and believes this can be done by backing business, supporting wealth creation and increasing home ownership.
The former Foreign Secretary declared: “It’s so simple. Yet for three years, we haven’t really talked that up.
“It’s high time that Conservatives got a spring back in their step and there was a lot more optimism and conviction about what we’re doing.”
He defended his colourful language which has landed him in the soup in the past, saying: “It’s very important in politics to say what you think and to try to get your message across as powerfully as you can. What I want to do is very clear. I need to get Brexit over the line, I need to unite the country and I think we’ve got a very exciting plan to do that.
“Look, I’m full of beans. If I’m lucky enough to be elected then I want to devote maximum energy to trying to mobilise the team and deliver on the mandate.
“We’ve got to get Brexit done, get it over the line by October 31 at the very latest, and then get ready to defeat Corbyn.”
Mr Johnson poured scorn on the defeatist attitude of those who say it will be impossible to get Britain out of the EU before that deadline.
And he claimed howls of protest against a No Deal departure were mostly from MPs who want to stop Brexit altogether.
On Farage
BOJO ruled out an election pact with Nigel Farage to stop his Brexit Party destroying the Tories.
Boris said the pair met in a pub 25 years ago in a bid to recruit one another and it “didn’t get anywhere”.
He also said there will be no need to do a deal if he delivers Brexit on time and has a “great programme”.
Mr Johnson added: “People say, ‘Why don’t you do a deal with this or that party?’.
"I see no point. We’re the only party that can keep out Jeremy Corbyn. All the others can do is let him in.”
He added: “All these arguments about bureaucratic and logistical impossibilities that are being raised are just proxies for a reluctance to leave.
Everybody who says they can’t stand the idea of aNo Deal Brexit really mean they don’t want to leave at all.
“To be fair, I think there are some who do want to leave but are also apprehensive about a No Deal Brexit, but I think their fears are overdone, I really do.”
Mr Johnson, 55, becomes animated when it is suggested there simply isn’t time for him to meet the Halloween Brexit deadline.
“Well, why not?” he roars. “Honestly. Now, come on. We’ve got to show a bit more gumption about this.
"The legal position is that we’re leaving on October 31 and we’re going to do that.
“We were pretty much ready on March 29. And we shall be ready by October 31. It’s vital our EU partners see that.
“They have to look deep into our eyes and think, ‘My God, these Brits actually are going to leave.
"And they are going to leave on those terms. So we have to decide what whether we’re going to have barriers to trade for the first time since Napoleonic times or not’.
"I think at that point they will decide to deploy common sense.”
On Carrie
LOVED-up BoJo said it was “a tiny bit premature” to talk of marrying girlfriend Carrie Symonds.
Asked if she will move into No10, he said: “I think that comes under the heading of measuring up the curtains and presumptuous. I’m just concentrating on driving for the line.”
He was equally coy when it was suggested he could be the first PM in modern times to get married while in Downing Street.
He said: “You know, I just think all that looks just a tiny bit premature. I’m still fighting to get votes in.”
Mr Johnson recalls his time as Mayor of London when the 2012 Olympics in the capital was riven with calamities.
He said: “Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
"We drove the American athletics team to Southend rather than the Olympic Park, there was a bridge over the M4 that turned out to be as useful as a freshly-dunked digestive and all the security guards failed to turn up.
“We had thousands of people who were meant to be vetting people who didn’t turn up and two of the security guards we did manage to hire were involved in bomb hoaxes.
"The run up to the Olympics was a heavily disguised fiasco. But we got it, we turned it around and it became just about the biggest triumph London has put on in the last few years.
"It was an amazing success. We can do this with Brexit.”
After leading Britain out of the EU, Mr Johnson’s next priority will be to “see off” of Jeremy Corbyn and his “deranged” economic policies.
He said: “We cannot have him anywhere near Downing Street. This is a guy who still believes in Bolivarian Revolutionary socialism.
“His foreign policy and security policies are really disastrous.
"He literally backs the mullahs of Tehran over the United States.
On Love Island
TELLY hit Love Island has proved more baffling than the Brexit process to Boris.
He said: “I’ve occasionally glimpsed at a few episodes to see what it’s all about and I have to admit I don’t understand it at all.
“It’s all these bodybuilders crying. Terrible things seem to have happened in their lives.
“I just don’t understand why they are so upset. I’ve watched it but I’m totally baffled by it.”
"When innocent British civilians were poisoned in Salisbury, he stood up and acted as an apologist for Moscow. Unbelievable.
“His sidekick John McDonnell is, if anything, more dangerous and, frankly, sinister.
"Don’t forget McDonnell was sacked by Ken Livingstone in 1984 for lying about the state of Greater London Council’s finances.
“He tried to produce an illegal budget for purely political purposes, pretending the GLC had run out of money when it actually had another £135million.
"This is a guy who wants to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. We can’t let it happen.
“So I hope that Sun on Sunday readers will see that what is needed is solid modern pragmatic conservatism.”
Mr Johnson said he hopes to get the backing of readers because he will deliver Brexit and offer a “fantastic programme for government”.
He added: “We will deliver for young Sun on Sunday readers the best prospect of home ownership, the best jobs, the lowest taxes, the greenest environment, the best schools, an Australian-style system for immigration and many other things. That’s what we want. That is our mission.
“But I’m taking nothing for granted in this leadership election and will be working flat out to until the ballot closes.”
On Line Of Duty
BOJO has been hooked on TV’s Line of Duty and says Ted Hastings is his small-screen hero.
But he can’t bear the idea the character is mystery baddie “H”.
He said: “The great thing is that, so far, Hastings has proved incorruptible. In my theology he has got to be innocent.
“It will be appalling if it turns out that he’s a baddie. For the sake of national morale, we’ve got to ensure that Hastings continues to catch bent coppers.”
Mr Johnson also said the key to prosperity was the balance between private sector and public services — and that he would ensure Britain had a well-balanced economy.
But he said it would be a “bit presumptuous” to compare himself to other PMs.
He added: “Before you start comparing yourself to highly successful figures of the past, you’ve got to spend a bit of time at the crease.”
On footie Lionesses
ARMCHAIR fan Boris has been cheering on the Lionesses during the World Cup in France.
He said the team was “robbed” in their semi-final defeat to USA but sees their progress as a great example of how far the country has come in sex equality.
Boris added: “It’s incredible how women’s football has taken off.
It shows how attitudes have changed and what a good thing it is. I think it’s fantastic.”
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