2011 clip of Boris Johnson saying that the UK will remain part of the single market goes viral

It's hard to believe it but Boris Johnson is actually the prime minister now and he's all for taking the UK out of the EU with a no-deal Brexit.

This would mean that the UK surrenders all the privileges that it holds as an EU member state, such as being a member of the single market.

Despite reports today claiming that Johnson has hinted that the UK could stay in the customs union for another two years, he had a slightly different tone before the 2016 referendum.

In a resurfaced clip from December 2011 at an event for the Institute for Public Policy Research, when Johnson was still the mayor of London, he claimed that the UK would 'remain a paid, valued, participating member of the single market'.

The full quote reads verbatim as follows:

We're not just a fully paid-up member of the EU, which we will remain whether, whether or not we are in the fiscal union or 'FU' as it's called or whether, or whether, or whether we are relegated to the second tier of the fiscal union, or 'FU' 2 as it's called. 

We're not only, we're not only, we're not only, we are, we will remain a paid up, a paid up and valued, participating member of the single market that is, that is, under no circumstances in my view will a British government adjust that position.

The clip, which Johnson had probably forgot ever existed, has since resurfaced on Twitter this week after it was shared by a Boris Johnson parody account and has already been viewed more than 700,000 times.

Needless to say, people aren't too impressed by what they have seen, given that the man in the video is now a hardline Brexiteer and the prime minister.

You can watch Johnson's full speech from the event, where he mostly talks about the benefits of hosting the 2012 Olympics (gee...remember that).

HT The Poke

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