Sajid Javid has become the latest cabinet minister forced to defend Boris Johnson for comparing the war in Ukraine to Brexit.
The health secretary said “normal people” would not have thought that was what the prime minister said in his speech to the Tory spring conference on Saturday.
Johnson told delegates in Blackpool: “I know that it’s the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time. I can give you a couple of famous recent examples.
“When the British people voted for Brexit in such large, large numbers, I don’t believe it was because they were remotely hostile to foreigners.
“It’s because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself.”
The PM was widely condemned for the remarks, including by former Downing Street chief of staff Lord Barwell.
Asked for his thoughts on the speech, Javid said: “What I heard from the Prime Minister was the… basically the desire for self-determination in everyone, no matter what country they’re in, no matter what their circumstance, is strong.
“I don’t think in any way he was connecting the situations in Ukraine and the UK, and if we want to know what the Prime Minister thinks about Ukraine and responding, I mean, we can see for ourselves in terms of the support that he’s provided, rock-solid support compared to any other world leader.”
He added: “I think it’s spurious to say that he was connecting somehow the UK and Ukraine in that way.
“I think most normal people listening to that wouldn’t have drawn that conclusion.”
His comments echoed those of chancellor Rishi Sunak, who said on Sunday that the prime minister was not comparing the situation in Ukraine to the UK’s vote to leave the EU in 2016.
Sunak said: “Clearly they are not directly analogous and I don’t think the prime minister was saying that they were directly analogous either.
″People will draw their own conclusions. People can make up their own minds.”