Boris Johnson launches blistering attack on Nigel Farage - 'extremely dangerous'

Boris Johnson has launched a blistering attack on Nigel Farage - calling his approach to Russia "extremely dangerous".

The former Tory PM warned he has "serious anxieties" about Reform UK's approach to the economy and national security. And he mocked the party's future, questioning whether it would even exist by the next election.

“My concerns, and they are serious concerns, are about the approach to the economy of the Reform Party and the approach on our national security," Mr Johnson said.

“We are going to need a Conservative government that is strong on defence and doesn't believe to take a position at random, that the problem in Ukraine was that NATO provoked Putin. I think that's extremely dangerous."

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He also mocked Reform UK's rise in the polls, saying “That party was on zero when I was Prime Minister… and that was because we got Brexit done. Who is to say whether that party will even exist before the next election?”

In a highly public row last summer, the former Brexit allies lashed out at one anotherafter Mr Farage claimed in a BBC Panorama interview that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine.

The Reform UK leader had suggested NATO and European Union enlargement up to Russia's borders gave Vladimir Putin an excuse to invade Ukraine - although he admitted the despot wanted to invade anyway.

At the time, Mr Johnson confronted Farage for not apologising for the comment, saying: "This is nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda. Nobody provoked Putin."

Mr Johnson's latest intervention comes after Mr Farage earlier this week referred to a "Boris wave"during Mr Johnson's time in No10, with a surge in legal migration. The Reform UK leader made the comment as he set out "morally repugnant" plans to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said he has "confidence in the energy and combativeness" of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, despite her dwindling poll ratings. He said she was “easily the sparkiest and the most intellectually original” of all current party leaders.

The disgraced Partygate ex-PM also said he was "convinced" he would have beaten Mr Starmer in last year's general election.

Asked about Mr Farage, he told the Sun: "My concerns, as I say, and they're serious concerns are about the approach to the economy of the Reform Party and the approach on national security. I think both of those will be severely tested in the years ahead, and people will actually want serious answers. And I think that the answers are going to be Conservative answers."

Asked if he saw Mr Farage as either "a joke or a threat to national security or both", Mr Johnson continued: "I think there are two real priorities for us now. The number one is the economy... and the second is defence, national security, and the threat of Russia and on both of those, I have very serious anxieties."

He said the public had a choice between Labour, who he claimed had "pro-Moscow, Corbynista" grassroots supporters, or Reform UK.

"Do you want this other, this Reform gang, who are on record as saying that NATO provoked Putin's aggression? I think the world wants to save the West, what the world needs is UK leadership on this. And they need the UK to be strong and determined and not to sound equivocal, morally equivocal about transparent evil like invading Ukraine."

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