Johnson’s pro-Europe stance revealed
Print Edition
BRITISH Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote an article urging that Britain stay in the EU just days before becoming the chief campaigner for Brexit, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
In the previously unseen column, Johnson asserted that remaining in the European Union would be “a boon for the world and for Europe.”
He warned that Brexit could lead to “economic shock” and the breakup of the union between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, in a book by the newspaper’s political editor Tim Shipman, entitled “All Out War.”
Then there is “the Putin factor,” Johnson wrote, adding, “We don’t want to do anything to encourage more shirtless swaggering from the Russian leader, not in the Middle East, not anywhere.”
“There are some big questions that the ‘out’ side need to answer,” he wrote.
The column was penned just two days before the shock announcement in February that Johnson would head the “Leave” campaign.
Shipman said Johnson wrote the piece “as a way of clarifying his thoughts,” before composing a final article arguing the case for Brexit, published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper in March.
In the pro-EU column, Johnson supports membership of the European single market, which this week he described as “increasingly useless.” “This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms: the membership fee seems rather small for all that access,” the former London mayor wrote.
The politician also made an emotional plea to voters to consider the impact of Brexit on future generations, writing, “Shut your eyes. Hold your breath. Think of Britain. Think of the rest of the EU. Think of the future.”
Responding to the publication, Johnson told journalists that he had been “wrestling with the issue” in February and wrote a long article that was “overwhelmingly in favor of leaving” the EU.
“I then thought I had better see if I could try and make an alternative case to myself so I wrote a kind of semi-parodic article in the opposite sense,” he said. “I set them side by side and it was blindingly obvious what the right thing to do was. And I think the people made the right decision.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
