With Theresa May last month vowing to give up her premiership in a final bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament, the race for the next Tory prime minister has begun in earnest.
From grandiose op-eds in the Sunday newspapers, to wide-ranging speeches at think-tanks, big hitters from across the Conservative Party have been flexing their leadership muscles for the public.
So at first glance, Boris Johnson’s campaign website didn’t come as that much of a surprise… until you looked closer.
Launched by anti-Brexit campaign group Our Future, Our Choice, the fake ‘Boris for Britain’ site imagines the former foreign secretary’s bid for the country’s top job.
“I could not be more excited to announce that I am putting myself forward for the leadership of the Conservative Party,” a spoof letter from Johnson reads.
“Instead of trusting the proud and Churchillian instincts of the British people, Frau May, with assistance from Herr Corbyn and the Marxist Labour Party, has decided to shred the Brexit Independence we voted for in favour of indefinite subjugation.”
The UK needs a leader who will “escape the shackles of the Customs Union”, bin the backstop, and “push our horizons back out across the seas we once ruled”.
“As your prime minister, I would tell Europe to ‘sod off’, and quickly strike a trade deal with my good friend in the White House that would allow the spirit of American enterprise to course through the veins of our NHS,” the letter continues.
“During the darkest hours of the history of these islands, true leaders have sallied forth, proudly bearing Albion’s banner. As Lord Kitchener once said, ‘Your country needs me.’”
According to the spoof campaign, Johnson’s plans as PM would include building bridges to France and Ireland, cutting workplace rights and abolishing inheritance tax.
“This might not be a joke,” the Our Future, Our Choice campaign group wrote on the site.
“If Labour MPs vote for May’s Brexit Deal, even if the Labour party secure some changes, they’ll be firing the starting gun on a Tory leadership election which will likely end up with Boris as PM. He’d then have the opportunity to do all of the above.”
The campaign is a bid to remind Labour MPs not to vote for any Brexit deal, they said, adding: “It will only end in misery.”
Sources close to Johnson are not commenting on the website.
If the former London mayor chooses to join the leadership race for real, it would be the first time he has officially thrown his hat in the ring for PM.
Despite a widespread belief in 2016 that he would run for prime minister after the EU referendum, Johnson revealed he would not be standing after his Vote Leave ally Michael Gove announced he was running.