‘It’s not too late to save Brexit’: Boris Johnson slams Theresa May but doesn’t make bid for PM position

Britain’s former foreign secretary Boris Johnson used a stinging resignation speech on Wednesday to tell members of parliament that it was “not too late to save Brexit” but stopped short of a leadership challenge to Theresa May’s battered premiership.

Johnson, who resigned from the cabinet last week over May’s negotiating strategy, said that the government had allowed a “fog of uncertainty” to descend since Prime Minister May’s speech in January 2017, which suggested a “comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement” with the European Union.

Later on Wednesday, May warned a meeting of her backbench MPs of the risks of a general election. Senior Conservatives said afterwards that she had weathered a febrile few days at Westminster, and would survive to resume battle with Brexit hardliners after the summer recess.

In effect, Johnson accused May of betraying millions of Brexit voters who favoured leaving the European Union and urged the government to rethink its strategy, adding that the country would never again have the chance to get it right.

Johnson, who led the main Brexit campaign in the 2016 referendum, resigned over May’s strategy, triggering the government’s biggest crisis since she lost her parliamentary majority after calling a snap election last year.

“It is not too late to save Brexit,” Johnson said in his speech. “We have time in these negotiations – we have changed tack once and we can change again.”

He added: “The problem is not that we failed to make the case for a free-trade agreement of the kind spelt out at Lancaster House, we haven’t even tried. We must try now because we will not get another chance to get it right.”