Former Tory chair brands Boris Johnson 'English nationalist'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson - Credit: PA

The former Conservative Party chairman has branded Boris Johnson an “English nationalist” – claiming that he did not believe he was a Tory.

Lord Patten, a Tory peer, claims that Johnson’s government appeared to have thrown “out of the window” their defence of the union.

“What we’re seeing is Boris Johnson on this runaway train of English exceptionalism and heaven knows where it is going to take us in the end,” he told the Independent.

“I want the best for my country, I fear for what’s happening at the moment and I fear for our reputation around the world, I fear for what will happen economically,” he explained.

“I hope that I’m wrong to feel so depressed about the outlook but I don’t think that Mr Johnson is a Conservative, I think he is an English nationalist.

“And all the things that Conservatives used to believe in – like standing up for the union, like not attacking our institutions, like the judges, like believing in international co-operation – seem to have gone out of the window.”