Boris Johnson blasts Government for allowing Britain to be gripped by Brexit ‘hysteria’

BORIS Johnson has condemned the Government for failing to highlight the positives of Britain leaving the EU and allowing the country to descend into “hysteria” after the referendum result.

The former mayor of London slammed the Tory leadership for not showing the “bright future” that awaits Britain away from Brussels.

And Johnson said Government inaction means British citizens have gone into “contagious mourning” following the referendum, evidenced by thousands of people taking to the streets in protest.

He told the Telegraph: “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.

“It is time for this nonsense to end…We cannot wait until mid September and a new PM, we need a clear statement, now, of some basic truths.”

Johnson withdrew from the Tory leadership race on Thursday after his campaign was abandoned by Michael Gove, who criticised the former London mayor’s leadership before launching his own campaign for office.

And now Johnson’s former campaign manager Ben Wallace has launched a scathing attack on Gove and his wife Sarah Vine, calling into question their trustworthiness.

The MP said: “From the minute Michael Gove came on board with Boris’s leadership campaign, things started to go wrong.

“There was a leak a day in the press, starting with the camera crews at Boris’s house in Oxfordshire on the first day and ending with the infamous email from Sarah Vine, Michael’s wife, “accidentally” finding its way to the papers.”

He added: “For me this wasn’t new. When I was a government whip and Michael was the chief whip, the office leaked like a sieve. Important policy and personnel details made their way to the papers.

"Michael seems to have an emotional need to gossip, particularly when drink is taken, as it all too often seemed to be.

“UK citizens deserve to know that when they go to sleep at night their secrets and their nation’s secrets aren’t shared in the newspaper column of the prime minister’s wife the next day, or traded away with newspaper proprietors over fine wine.”

Johnson has demanded the Government sets out five "basic truths" about Brexit to help the public understand.

He said it should be made clear there is "no risk whatever" to EU nationals already living in Britain and that the future “is very bright indeed”.

It comes after George Osborne, the Chancellor, unveiled a five point plan to boost the economy after the Brexit voter, including aggressive cuts to corporation tax, support for bank lending and a new push for investment in China.

Osborne said: “I don’t resile from the warnings I made about the impact — including a recession.

“But I don’t think we should feel sorry for ourselves as a country. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and make the best of it and make the most of it. I don’t sit here feeling sorry for myself, feeling somehow that it is all going to unravel. Quite the reverse.”