16 September, 2017
The foreign secretary has broken from the emerging cabinet consensus, insisting that Britain should not have to pay to access the EU's single market after its formal exit in March 2019.
In the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said once the United Kingdom had "settled our accounts.it would be a fine thing. if a lot of that money went on the NHS".
"It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS, provided we use that cash injection to modernise and make the most of new technology".
He also said the United Kingdom should borrow money to spend on boosting infrastructure in London and that doubters will see the United Kingdom "succeed mightily" in Brexit.
May's authority was weakened after she called a snap election in June, only to lose her Conservative party's majority in the House of Commons.
"All those who write off this country, who think we don't have it in us, who think that we lack the nerve and confidence to tackle the task ahead, they have been proved wrong before, and believe me they will be proved wrong again", Mr Johnson said.
The prime minister will use a keynote speech in Florence, Italy, next Friday to suggest the sort of transitional period that Chancellor Philip Hammond has described a "status quo" arrangement, the Financial Times reports.
Former UKIP leader and supporter of Leave Means Leave Lord Pearson told Andrew Castle that by parroting the "naughty" claim the Foreign Secretary was showing he "does not understand" the EU.
Vote Leave's decision to campaign on the £350m figure was considered controversial, because it includes money which returns to the United Kingdom via European Union funds as well as the vaunted rebate - considered a triumph by the Tory Party but "half of a tip" by Continental europhiles.
"We would not expect to pay for access to their markets any more than they would expect to pay for access to ours", he wrote.
One Downing Street source said: "Boris's views are well known".
He adds: "Outside the European Union there are obvious opportunities... in the setting of indirect taxation".
Labour said the article exposed the divisions in Mrs May's top team. "No one can trust a word he says", said Umunna. Meanwhile guy who wants to replace her issues a prelude to resignation, to save face over 350 million pounds. Boris should be apologising for his disgraceful conduct in the referendum, not continually making the same impossible promises.
"In the process he has exposed the Tories' real Brexit agenda - a race-to-the-bottom in regulation and corporate tax cuts to benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the rights of the rest of us. A period of silence on his part would be welcome".
