Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to Sir Alan Duncan’s comments about Boris Johnson, said:

“While applauding Alan Duncan’s honesty, we can only be appalled at what his comments reveal. Boris Johnson never wanted the Leave campaign to win; he never thought he’d have to deliver on its promises; he just wanted to bolster his own leadership ambitions. As usual, Boris will try to laugh this off, but it’s not a joke for the people of Britain.

“Thanks to the recklessness of the Tories, who made no plans for a Leave vote and clearly never expected one, we are - in Alan Duncan’s words - entering a period of ‘total chaos’, ‘deep instability and uncertainty’, and ‘ultra-dysfunctional government’. What he predicted is now the reality, and as second-in-command at the Foreign Office, he is seeing it first-hand.

“This just reinforces what Labour has been saying: we cannot trust the Tories who got us into this mess to get us out of it. Instead of Boris and his friends playing personal power games with the country’s future, we need a Labour government who will put the needs of the British people first.”