The frontrunner in the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and UK prime minister wrote an extensive piece for a British newspaper on Sunday to comment on a recent interview by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that liberal ideas were no longer supported by a majority of people in Western nations, Sputnik News reports.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph today he insisted: "When Vladimir Putin says that liberalism is obsolete, he is talking the most tremendous tripe."
And he took a swipe at Russia for having too much power in the hands of "oligarchs and cronies" and where 12 per cent of the population still has to rely on an outdoor toilet, The Sun reports.
"If we fail yet again, and especially if we thereby increase the risk that the EU demands another referendum before we have delivered the first, we will make a mockery of democracy. [...] If we want to uphold liberal values, we must leave by October 31 – and we will", Johnson penned in the article, headlined, "We will prove Vladimir Putin wrong by leaving the EU by October 31".
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