The ex-Foreign Secretary sported a new haircut today, leading punters to believe he's ready to launch his bid should the PM fall in days
BORIS Johnson has admitted he has a "personal responsibility" to fix Brexit as he threw his hat into the ring to replace Theresa May if she's ousted this week.
The ex-Foreign Secretary sported a new haircut today, leading punters to believe he's ready to launch his bid should the PM fall in days.
Boris told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show today: "Do not underestimate the deep sense of personal responsibility I feel for Brexit... There is a real alternative".
He said Britain could do "much, much better" than the PM's deal and predicted she would be defeated on Tuesday.
Boris said: "It absolutely breaks my heart to think that after all we fought for, all that we campaigned for... that we should consign ourselves to a future in which the EU effectively rules us in many many respects and yet we have no say around the table in Brussels."
The PM could stay on and go back to Brussels in the event her deal is blasted down, he added.
The leading Brexiteer said the "real problem" with her deal was the Northern Ireland backstop, and it "gives the power to Brussels... effectively to blackmail us and get what they want out of the future trade negotiation."
He was asked directly today if he would run to be PM, and would only say: "I will continue to advocate what I think is the most sensible plan to get out of this mess."
His intervention today comes after Boris unveiled his pitch for the job in The Sun on Sunday, vowing to take on EU bullies and get a deal that works for everyone.
He promised that he would not hand a penny of the £39billion divorce bill to the EU until the hated backdrop - which could keep Britain trapped in the customs union - is ditched.
If they agree, he will give them half the cash and tell them the rest will follow once we have agreed a “generous zero tariff, zero quota free trade deal”.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Mr Johnson says: “It is time now to show our EU friends that we mean business."
Meanwhile, leading Tories are getting their knives out already in the belief that the Prime Minister will have to go if her deal is blasted apart by MPs in the Commons on Tuesday.
And ex-DWP Secretary Esther McVey, who quit over Mrs May's Brexit deal last month, at first dodged questions on whether she could run, but then admitted she might be persuaded to.
Ms McVey told Sky's Ridge on Sunday: "If people asked me, then of course you’d give it serious concern and do it if people asked me."
She urged the PM to rip up her deal and go back to the EU again too - and blasted the decision to pay £39billion to the EU without anything firm back.
And she slapped down reports she had a breakdown in her last Cabinet meeting over Brexit, saying the only meltdown was from other ministers so they "didn't have to put their names" to backing the deal or not.
Ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab also refused to say whether he would fight to be PM.
"I wouldn't rule it out, but I'm not going to get sucked in to that debate," he admitted.
The news comes as:
Jacob Rees-Mogg today urged fellow Tories to back a "unity" leadership of Boris and Amber Rudd if Mrs May is toppled.
The Somerset MP said a "leading figures from either side" should come together to "deliver the Brexit the people voted for with a global, outward-looking UK that could succeed".
The Mail on Sunday also revealed that Sajid Javid was canvassing MPs for their support on Friday.
A source said the Home Secretary was "preparing for the possibility she might be forced" to go.
He and Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom will hold a joint Christmas drinks next week, which could be laying the ground for a joint leadership bid.
David Davis is also expected to throw his hat into the ring.
Mrs May will decide on Monday whether to persist with her doomed withdrawal plan when government whips tell her exactly the full scale of the expected thrashing.
If Mrs May's deal gets rejected on Tuesday as expected, then all bets are off as to what might happen next.
She could resign as PM, Labour could try and bring down the Government, and it could even lead to Jeremy Corbyn in No10 by Christmas.
Labour's Jon Trickett told Sky this morning the party were ready to form a minority government as early as Wednesday morning.
