PM-in-Waiting Boris Johnson Appoints Brexit Hardliner as Senior Advisor

Conservative MP and leadership contender Boris Johnson drives a forklift truck during a le
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Oliver JJ Lane

Boris Johnson, the favourite to be the next British Prime Minister when the role is handed over next week has appointed a noted Brexiteer as his senior Brexit policy advisor, in a move which may signpost his intended course on the European Union.

Conservative Party members are presently in the final stages of selecting the next leader of their party, who through the composition of the present British Parliament will become the next Prime Minister when the votes are counted and the succession made next week. Former Mayor of London and one-time foreign secretary Boris Johnson is the favourite to win the contest and has made delivering Brexit “do or die” by October 31st the central plank of his campaign.

Yet doubt remains over Mr Johnson’s will or ability to deliver a Brexit in little over three months, while Theresa May’s government failed, despite clear and repeated promises, to do so over three years. Top Brexiteers like Nigel Farage have called Mr Johnson’s sincerity, or whether political expediency would persuade the Tory big hitter to take the easier path of further delays and obfuscation, a route Brexiteers believe leads to no departure from Europe at all.

But in one cheering signal to Brexiteers that Mr Johnson does intend to make progress, British newspaper the Daily Telegraph revealed Wednesday the appointment of Daniel Moylan as a senior advisor to Mr Johnson. Moylan is described in the paper’s report as a “hardline… combative Eurosceptic” and “implacable opponent” of Theresa May’s doomed Brexit-in-name-only deal.

Mr Moylan had previously worked with Boris Johnson during his time as Mayor of London.

His appointment stands in contrast to the advisors and senior civil servants that surrounded Theresa May during her three years in Downing Street, which despite her repeated promises to be working on honouring the 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union, were generally characterised by being fanatical Europhiles.

A spokesman from the Boris Johnson leadership bid team took the usual stance on the revelation by denying everything. As they had over claims Mr Johnson was planning on launching a charm offensive to get a trade deal signed with the Americans before Brexit, claims that Mr Johnson would hold a general election, and claims that Mr Johnson would shut down Parliament to see off last-ditch attempts to kill Brexit, the newspaper revealed a “source close to Mr Johnson” said no decisions on positions in a theoretical future government had been made.

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