LONDON (AP) – In the crucial days before Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson embraced Britain’s “leave campaign,” he wrote a newspaper column explaining why Britain should remain inside the European Union – but those forceful words were never published before Britain’s June 23 vote.
The Sunday Times has now published Johnson’s pro-EU column, which outlines his fears about leaving the EU.
Johnson told reporters Sunday it is “perfectly true” he was uncertain about which side to endorse when he wrote the unpublished column in February. But he said that when he compared it to a column he wrote in favor of leaving the EU, it was “blindingly obvious” that leaving was the better choice.
It has long been known that the Johnson wavered before breaking with then-Prime Minister David Cameron and playing a pivotal role in the successful “leave” campaign. But the column illuminates how Johnson would have made the case for staying in the EU.
In it, he warns of the potential “economic shock” that leaving might bring Britain, praises the value of having easy access to the EU’s huge single market and makes an emotional case for preserving ties to other European nations.