{"id":158337,"date":"2025-09-24T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158337\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:23:08","slug":"boris-johnson-says-farages-stance-on-russia-is-extremely-dangerous-boris-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158337\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Johnson says Farage\u2019s stance on Russia is \u2018extremely dangerous\u2019 | Boris Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson has said Nigel Farage\u2019s stance on Russia is \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d and Reform UK is a threat to national security.<\/p>\n

The former prime minister\u2019s attack comes in a week in which Reform has stepped up its criticism of what it calls the \u201cBoriswave\u201d<\/a> of post-Brexit legal migration.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Harry Cole Saves the West show for the Sun newspaper, Johnson said he has \u201cserious anxieties\u201d about Reform\u2019s Ukraine<\/a> stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concerns, and they are serious concerns, are about the approach to the economy of the Reform party and the approach on our national security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to need a Conservative government that is strong on defence and doesn\u2019t believe, to take a position at random, that the problem in Ukraine was that Nato provoked Putin. I think that\u2019s extremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also criticised Reform UK\u2019s stance on lifting the two-child <\/a>benefit cap as ridiculous.<\/p>\n

Johnson said: \u201cHow are we supposed to explain to hard-working people that their neighbours can take more and more money from the state?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to reform welfare. We have got to spend less on public services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson backed Kemi Badenoch<\/a> as Conservative leader but did not rule out trying to return to lead the party in future, saying he was happy writing his book and working on other projects at the moment. The former prime minister also said he was convinced he could have beaten Keir Starmer last year in the general election.<\/p>\n

He mocked Reform UK\u2019s position leading the polls, saying: \u201cThat party was on zero when I was prime minister \u2026 and that was because we got Brexit done \u2026 Who is to say whether that party will even exist before the next election?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some current and former Conservatives<\/a> MPs have defected to Reform, including Johnson\u2019s one-time allies Jake Berry and Nadine Dorries, fuelling speculation of a possible alliance between the Tories and the party in future.<\/p>\n

But asked if the Conservatives should strike a deal with Farage, Johnson dismissed the idea: \u201cThe answers to this country\u2019s problems are going to be Conservative answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed the Conservatives \u201cwill come back\u201d and described the beleaguered Badenoch as \u201ceasily the sparkiest and the most intellectually original\u201d of current party leaders, saying she had \u201cthe right ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the interview Zia Yusuf, Reform\u2019s policy chief, posted a picture of Johnson mocked up as a clown on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boris Johnson has said Nigel Farage\u2019s stance on Russia is \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d and Reform UK is a threat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-158337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}