Did Boris Johnson bottle clash with Gove to be leader? He’s had second thoughts

Boris Johnson today admitted he had had second thoughts about pulling out of the Tory leadership race.

Asked on LBC radio whether he had “bottled” it, the former Foreign Secretary said: “In retrospect if I had my time again I might have done things differently.”

The former foreign secretary also clashed with Michael Gove over Brexit and cleaning up Britain’s toxic air in the interview.

He also predicted that Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint would “go down” tomorrow when MPs are expected to heavily vote against it. He said: “Britain will leave in March, absolutely, and that’s the bottom line.”

The ex-Mayor of London withdrew from the party leadership contest in the wake of the Brexit referendum in 2016 after Mr Gove torpedoed his campaign by launching his own bid to be leader rather than supporting Mr Johnson.

He refused to say whether he would make another bid for the leadership if Mrs May quit, saying there is “no vacancy today”.

He also declined to reveal how he had cast his ballot in the vote of no-confidence in Mrs May as Tory leader last month, which she won despite 117 MPs opposing her, but hinted: “I don’t agree with the current direction [on Brexit].”

Pressed by presenter Nick Ferrari on whether he was surprised that Environment Secretary Mr Gove, a fellow Leave champion, was still in the Cabinet despite concerns over Mrs May’s deal, he said: “It’s a matter for him.”

Asked if he had problems with wood-burning stoves, in the light of Mr Gove proposing to ban the most polluting ones, Mr Johnson said: “It’s starting to become absolutely tyrannical this, I mean, honestly what next? They’re banning and you have to have calorie-counts on everything … I thought wood-burning stoves were perfectly OK.”

He admitted he had more than one wood-burning stove himself, adding: “I’m going to have to ask my friend Michael to inhale some fumes and see how bad it is.”