All Quotes

"Fuck business."

"[The Brexit] dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt"

"If you tell me that the burka is oppressive, then I am with you. If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree – and I would add that I can find no scriptural authority for the practice in the Koran. I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any – invariably male – government to encourage such demonstrations of "modesty"."

"If a constituent came to my MP’s surgery with her face obscured, I should feel fully entitled – like Jack Straw – to ask her to remove it so that I could talk to her properly. If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto: those in authority should be allowed to converse openly with those that they are being asked to instruct."

"I am against a total ban because it is inevitably construed – rightly or wrongly – as being intended to make some point about Islam. If you go for a total ban, you play into the hands of those who want to politicise and dramatise the so-called clash of civilisations; and you fan the flames of grievance. You risk turning people into martyrs, and you risk a general crackdown on any public symbols of religious affiliation, and you may simply make the problem worse."

"It [Theresa May's Chequers plan] is a humiliation. We look like a seven-stone weakling being comically bent out of shape by a 500lb gorilla."

"Theresa May's Chequers plan for future relations with the EU would mean] abandoning our seat around the table in Brussels and continuing to accept the single market legislation"

"[There has been a] collective failure of government, and a collapse of will by the British establishment, to deliver on the mandate of the people."

"[The Chequers proposals represented] the intellectual error of believing we can be half-in, half-out"

"[A Super Canada deal would involve] zero tariffs and zero quotas [on all imports and exports]"

"[EU regulations would] cheat the electorate"

"if we get it wrong we will be punished"

"[I am] grateful to the committee for recognising that there was no intention to mislead the House and that I had been completely transparent"

"[I] didn't say anything about Turkey during the referendum. Since I made no remarks...I can't disown them"

"Take that [Irish border] backstop out, or at the very least give us a legally binding change - within the text of the agreement - that allows for the UK to come out [of the EU] of its own accord, and then we will be able to say that the agreement is imperfect but at least tolerable."

"I think an awful lot of money, an awful lot of police time, now goes into these historic offences and all this malarkey and you know £60million I saw has been spaffed up the wall on some investigation into historic child abuse? What on earth is that going to do to protect the public now?"

"The British people won't be scared into backing a woeful Brexit deal nobody voted for"

"We are being asked to vote for a customs union and a second referendum. The Bill is directly against our manifesto - and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better - and deliver what the people voted for."

"We will leave the EU on 31 October, deal or no deal. The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal."

"[I will beat Labour and] put Nigel Farage back in his box"

"We will not be forgiven if we do not deliver Brexit on October 31"

"We need to realise the depth of the problems we face. Unless we get on and do this thing, we will be punished for a very long time. There is a very real choice between getting Brexit done and the potential extinction of this great party."

"I believe I am best placed to lift this party, beat Jeremy Corbyn and excite people about conservatism and conservative values."

"[The backstop is a "monstrosity" that wipes out the UK's sovereignty and is] being used to coerce the UK into becoming a vassal state of Brussels"

"[I am] not aiming for a no-deal [Brexit] outcome"

"[I will take the UK out of the EU by Halloween] come what may, do or die"

"If you Brexit sensibly and effectively, you take away so much of the ammunition of the SNP."

"We should actively campaign for a public understanding of the benefits of the [UK] union, economic and strategic, for the people and its component nations,"

"Interviewer: Can you give an example, in your political life, when you've set your own self-interest aside for the benefit of the country? Boris Johnson: Well, er, pfft, um, it's a good question, but er, I, I, I would, you know, I don't, obviously, it's an embarrassing but, but true that, um, er, it is obviously, possible, er, how should I put this, to make more money, er, by not being a full-time politician. Um, I don't, I don't want to put too finer point on it, er, but, you know, you have to, you have to, you have to, make sacrifices sometimes."

"Andrew Neil: You talk about article 5B in . Boris Johnson: Article 24, get it right Andrew, it's article 24, paragraph 5B. Andrew Neil: And how would you handle paragraph 5C? Boris Johnson: I would confide entirely in paragraph 5B. Andrew Neil: But how would you get round what's in 5C? Boris Johnson: I would confide entirely in paragraph 5B which is enough for out purposes. Andrew Neil: Do you know what is in 5C? Boris Johnson: No."

"[I will] deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn"

"We are going to energise the country. We are going to get Brexit done on 31 October and take advantage of all the opportunities it will bring with a new spirit of can do. We are once again going to believe in ourselves, and like some slumbering giant we are going to rise and ping off the guy ropes of self doubt and negativity."

"Under no circumstances would we agree to any free-trade deal that put the NHS on the table."

"We want to, and we are going to, deliver on the mandate of the people, which is to take the UK out of the EU whole and entire on 31 October"

"[The Irish border backstop would] keep us locked in EU regulatory orbit, locked in the EU trading system, unable to control our own laws"

"Preparing urgently and rapidly for the possibility of an [EU] exit without a deal will be my top priority, and it will be the top priority for the civil service too."

"MPs should "honour the mandate of the people" by leaving the EU."

"There's a terrible kind of collaboration as it were, going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends"

"[The Irish border backstop is] inconsistent with the sovereignty of the UK"

"I do think they [the EU] understand there's an opportunity to do a deal. I think it's going to be touch and go."

"I just say to everybody in the country, including everyone in Parliament, the fundamental choice is this: Are you going to side with Jeremy Corbyn and those who want to cancel the referendum? Are you going to side with those who want to scrub the democratic verdict of the people - and plunge this country into chaos. Or are you going to side with those of us who want to get on, deliver the mandate of the people and focus with absolute, laser-like precision on the domestic agenda?"

"[I would] rather be dead in a ditch [than ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 31 October]"

"I've looked carefully at no deal, I've assessed its consequences, both for our country and yours, and yes, of course, we could do it, the UK could certainly get through it, but be in no doubt that the outcome would be a failure of statecraft."

"Man: The NHS has been destroyed. It's been destroyed. It's been destroyed, and now you come here for a press opportunity. Boris Johnson: Well actually there's no press here. Man: [Points at camera crew] What do you mean there's no press here?"

"I've never heard such humbug in all my life."

"We have got a deal, oven-ready, by which we can leave the EU in a few weeks. It’s a great deal for this country. It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit"

"Let's get Brexit done, but first my friends let's get breakfast done."

"I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is... our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing."

"I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual."

"We are embarked now on a great voyage, a project that no one thought in the international community that this country would have the guts to undertake, but if we are brave and if we truly commit to the logic of our mission - open, outward-looking - generous, welcoming, engaged with the world championing global free trade now when global free trade needs a global champion. I believe we can make a huge success of this venture, for Britain, for our European friends, and for the world."