Boris Johnson: Brexit might Fail

TheGuardian - Boris Johnson has warned of a Brexit "meltdown" and branded the Treasury the "heart of remain" in unguarded comments at a private dinner.

At the gathering of the Conservative Way Forward, a Thatcherite campaign group, he said exit talks were approaching a "moment of truth". The foreign secretary said he believed Brexit will happen and would be "irreversible" but the "risk is that it will not be the one we want".

In comments captured in a recording obtained by BuzzFeed News, he said Theresa May was "going to go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels". He added: "You've got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK? I don't want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It's going to be all right in the end."

Johnson suggested the chancellor Philip Hammond's department was "basically the heart of remain".

The foreign secretary also said that he was "increasingly admiring of Donald Trump" and has become "convinced that there is method in his madness", according to a leaked recording from a private dinner for Tory activists.

"Imagine Trump doing Brexit," Johnson said, according to the recording leaked to BuzzFeed News. "He'd go in bloody hard … There'd be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he'd gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It's a very, very good thought."

After he had delivered the keynote speech at the group's summer reception, at the Institute of Directors in London, a select group - including Conor Burns, the MP for Bournemouth West and the foreign secretary's parliamentary private secretary - were said to have retired to a private room for dinner.

He revealed that the US wants Britain to "use...