Boris Johnson was quizzed in an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby about his time as Prime Minister.
Boris Johnson was appearing in an interview with ITV. (Image: ITV)
Boris Johnson shut down ITV’s Tom Bradby as the pair clashed over Brexit in a heated interview.
The former Prime Minister defended Brexit and dismissed criticisms regarding its economic impact.
Bradby pointed out that many of the UK’s trade deals post-Brexit were simply continuations of existing European Union agreements, adding that key deals with the US, China, and India were still pending.
Johnson responded by claiming that an India deal is “coming down the track” and that an agreement with America hinges on the upcoming US election.
When confronted with immigration figures showing a sharp rise since Brexit, Johnson rejected the notion that Brexit had failed.
The former prime minister was quizzed on a number of issues. (Image: ITV)
He insisted that leaving the EU had “saved many millions of lives” during the Covid pandemic and allowed the UK to act in its own interests.
This is despite Bradby highlighting that only nine percent of people believe Brexit was a success.
Johnson said: “The India deal is coming down the track. The deal with America depends very much on the US presidential election.
“If you look at the UK’s economic performance since 2016, it compares very favourably with other countries that are still in the EU and the key thing about Brexit, is to take advantage of those freedoms, and that’s why believing in Britain is about doing things differently.”
Bradby was then quick to respond, saying: “I understand all of these arguments but the reality is…you talk about immigration – 330,000 people came to this country in 2015 but by 2023, it was 685,000!
“Nine percent of people think Brexit worked out well and 57 percent of people think we should go back in. That is the legacy of Brexit, is it not?”
Johnson snapped back the ITV presenter stressing: “No! The legacy of Brexit is it saved many millions of lives at a difficult time for our country.
“It has given us the freedom to do things differently and better and in the interests of the people of this country.”
The interview came less than a week before Johnson’s new memoir Unleashed is released on October 10.
The former PM makes several eyebrow-raising claims in it the book. One of them states that David Cameron promised Johnson “any job he wanted” if he pledged to back the Remain campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Unleashed will be published on Thursday, October 10. You can pre-order Boris Johnson unleashed from Amazon.
