Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

In campaign seizes on Boris Johnson’s Brexit jobs comments

Boris Johnson’s admission to Andrew Marr that Brexit ‘might’ cost people their jobs has quite inevitably been seized upon by the ‘In’ campaign as a sign that a vote to leave would put people’s livelihoods at risk.

The Mayor of London came on the show to make the positive case for Britain leaving the European Union. It was his first big challenge as one of the key figures in the Out campaign, and as James argued yesterday, he needs to match David Cameron’s efficacy in putting his side’s case across. He did give an entertaining interview in which he scrapped with Andrew Marr over who had ‘sovereignty’ over the programme, and he did offer some good examples and illustrations of why he wanted to leave.

But he also rambled rather, and did not give the positive image of a post-EU Britain that he needs to offer. His line about jobs was particularly unhelpful, though in truth there wasn’t much else the Mayor could really have said that was honest. Marr stated that ‘there would be a period where people would lose their jobs’, and Boris replied that ‘there might. It might or it might not’, which is as equivocal as you can get. He insisted that the referendum was a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ and a chance to ‘take back control’, but was much better when talking about the problems with the EU than what life would be like outside:

‘I think that it is certainly true that if you vote to leave all your options are good and you could certainly strike a great free trade deal, as Wolfgang Schauble has just said, with the EU.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in