Tory leadership contender Boris Johnson has promised to “get Brexit done”, telling the audience at a hustings event in Birmingham he was the man to “unleash on the project.”
Johnson was first up to address Tory members at the event on Saturday, setting out his vision for the party leadership ahead of his rival Jeremy Hunt.
Johnson told Tory members: “The hour is darkest before dawn. And I am here to tell you that in all confidence we can turn this thing around.”
Johnson added: “I am utterly convinced, utterly convinced, that with the right energy, and the right commitment, common sense will prevail, but just in case it does not, we must prepare to come out anyway.
He also refused to answer questions about police being called to his flat early on Friday morning, saying: “I don’t think they want to hear about that kind of thing.”
It comes after neighbours told The Guardian that they heard screaming, shouting and banging at the property he shares with his partner, Carrie Symonds.
Host and LBC presenter Iain Dale put it to him that he was not going to make any comment at all regarding what happened in the early hours of Friday, and Johnson said that was “pretty obvious”.
Johnson said: “People are entitled to ask about me and my determination, my character and what I want to do for the country.
“Let me just tell you that when I make a promise in politics, about what I’m going to do, I keep that promise and I deliver.”
Dale told Johnson he was “completely avoiding” the question.
Dale had asked Johnson whether a person’s private life has any bearing on someone’s ability to discharge the office of prime minister, but received booing from the crowd, which prompted Johnson to say: “Don’t boo the great man.”
Johnson added: “I’ve tried to give my answer pretty exhaustively. I think what people want to know is whether I have the determination and the courage to deliver on the commitments that I’m making and it will need a lot of grit right now.”
He went on to reflect on his time as mayor of London.
Asked what the first thing he would do as prime minister, Johnson said he would work to “level up” funding for education, see full fibre broadband rolled out across the UK and deal with plans around Britain’s departure from the EU.
Describing himself as someone who has been “very lucky” in his life, he said: “I want to see kids around the country have an opportunity, have the basic tool of self-improvement that every child in this country deserves.”
He also dodged a question around whether he would have former leadership rival Michael Gove in his Cabinet
Johnson said: “There are plenty of candidates here in this room and it would be invidious of me to speculate about that.”