Jo Johnson joins Brexiteer Boris months after backing a new REFERENDUM

Blood is thicker than Brexit: Jo Johnson accepts a job in his brother Boris’s Brexiteer government months after quitting as a minister to back a SECOND REFERENDUM

  • Jo Johnson was names Universities Minister by his brother last night
  • He quit as a transport minister in November to back a People’s Vote
  • Appeared at a London rally beside ardent Remainer Gary Lineker 
  •  Mr Johnson told the audience ‘there are very few positives’ from Brexit

Brexit has managed to drive a wedge between friends and relatives across the UK as people have become polarised between Leave and Remain. 

But not, it seems, the Johnson clan. Boris Johnson last night gave a job to his brother Jo, 47, nine months after the younger sibling walked out of Theresa May’s Government to back a second Brexit referendum.

The Orpington MP’s appointment to Universities Minister means he will attend the hardline Brexiteer-dominated administration formed in a bloodbath of the ministries throughout the course of Wednesday.

The role comes under the jurisdiction of two departments, Education and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Both of them are now led by hardline Leavers in Andrea Leadsom and Gavin Williamson.

 Mr Johnson is one of a host of former Remain voters who have been given Government roles.

Sajid Javid has been made Chancellor, although he has undergone a conversion to the Brexiteer cause.

Amber Rudd has been kept on at Pensions after making Boris-friendly noises about leaving the EU in recent weeks and Matt Hancock stays at Health after backing Boris from early in the leadership campaign.

And former education secretary Nicky Morgan has returned to Government as Culture Secretary after last September saying: ‘I would not serve in a Johnson Cabinet.’

Mr Johnson’s acceptance of the post appears to mark an abrupt volte-face from November, when he shared a platform at a Remainer rally with television presenter and ex-footballer Gary Lineker.

Jo Johnson in Downing Street last night as he was made Universities Minister

Jo Johnson (pictured with Gary Lineker) warned that more ministers could quit in fury at Theresa May’s Brexit plan as he joined thousands at a People’s Vote rally in London in November

But he was quick to fall in behind his brother when he announced his run for the leadership of the Conservative Party.     

He accompanied Boris to a garden centre during a visit to his suburban London constituency and was present along with the rest of the Johnson clan when he was made leader on Tuesday.

Talking about the original 2016 EU referendum at the November People’s Vote rally in London Mr Johnson said: ‘I think it’s fair to say that back then we didn’t really know what it would entail, the ramifications of leaving the European Union. 

‘It’s becoming clear that there are very few positives. It’s almost unanimous that people think it will have some sort of debilitating effect on our economy, at the very least. I think it’s very rare in life that you get to use the benefit of hindsight.’  

He addressed a full capacity crowd of 2,500 people at Westminster Central Hall, while organisers said they had to turn away around 1,000 more people who wanted to attend the anti-Brexit rally. 

The Orpington MP quit as a transport minister shortly before the rally, saying that Theresa May’s Brexit deal was a massive failure in British statecraft on the scale of the Suez Crisis in 1956.  

Source: Read Full Article