Boris Johnson says UK Government was wrong to offer Brexit without plan for how Leave vote would work

Boris Johnson - credit: PA

Boris Johnson has blamed the UK Government for failing to produce a plan in the event the UK voted to leave the European Union.

The former London mayor has faced criticism from leading Conservatives after deciding against running for the Conservative leadership after helping to lead the Leave vote to win the EU referendum.

But responding in the Telegraph, Johnson said the UK Government should never have offered a binary choice on the EU without explaining how a Leave vote would be made to work.

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He said: “It was wrong of the Government to offer the public a binary choice on the EU without being willing – in the event that people voted Leave – to explain how this can be made to work in the interests of the UK and Europe.”

Last week the pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar in over 30-years, while Lord Heseltine last week accused Johnson of having “ripped apart” the Conservative party.

But Johnson dismissed concerns over the effect of Brexit.

He said: “These fears are wildly overdone. The reality is that the stock market has not plunged, as some said it would – far from it. The FTSE is higher than when the vote took place.

“There has been no emergency budget, and nor will there be. But the crowds of young people are experiencing the last psychological tremors of Project Fear – perhaps the most thoroughgoing government attempt to manipulate public opinion since the run-up to the Iraq War.”

YouGov polling suggests 75 per cent of 18-24 year-olds and 56 per cent of 25-49 year olds voted to remain in the EU.

Johnson said: “There is, among a section of the population, a kind of hysteria, a contagious mourning of the kind that I remember in 1997 after the death of the Princess of Wales”.

Downing Street has stated a Whitehall unit will produce proposals for Britain's withdrawal from the EU.