ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is reported to be furious about leaked comments from EU Ambassadors who tell Sky News amongst others that he had told them he supports free movement of people within the EU.  Well let’s put that straight away then to the man himself, to the Foreign Secretary, he joins me now.  A very good morning to you, Boris Johnson.

BORIS JOHNSON: Good morning, Dermot.

DM: Well let’s get it from the horse’s mouth, if you’ll excuse the phrase, do you privately support free movement of people within the EU?

BORIS JOHNSON: No, no, and I thought it was very wrong of whoever cooked that story up to put it to those ambassadors in that way.  What I said was very clearly I’m a backer of immigration but controlled immigration, I’ve always made it very clear that when I mayor of this city, London, where I am now, I thought there were ways in which the economy benefitted from having a great diversity of talent in the workforce but when people feel the strain of that in their lives politicians have got to be able to control it and that was a large amount of the, that was what a lot of the referendum campaign turned out to be about so what I said to them was I was pro people coming to London to offer their talent and their originality but it had to be controlled.  Unfortunately something got lost in the communication – I don't know if your reporter actually talked to those ambassadors but …

DM: I’m sorry, Foreign Secretary, but they are ambassadors to the UK, I’m sure they all speak very good English.  Either they’re dissembling or lying, or you are.  Four ambassadors said they heard it several times, you said it’s not government policy but you do support free movement, that’s four of them, they’re not lying.

BORIS JOHNSON: That’s complete nonsense.  Yes, well I think they have been misrepresented and if I may say so I’m not entirely convinced that your reporter talked to those ambassadors and I think actually there were plenty of people at that breakfast, we actually have a note by my own Foreign Office officials of what I said and it was very clear I said that I was pro-immigration for people of talent but that it had to be controlled.  Now something has obviously gone wrong in the translation of that or the communication of that but since then plenty of other ambassadors have come forward to – in fact the same ambassadors have come forward to stand up for my versions of events.  This is the kind of thing that you are going to get in the run up to these negotiations, there will be all sorts of malarkey, there will be all sorts of people trying to say one thing or the other about the British negotiating position.  My view is very, very clear, I do think that immigration, controlled immigration, has been a good thing but it has got to be something that politicians are held accountable for.  When you have large numbers coming from the EU without any system of control then people feel they are not taking decisions about their own country in a way that they should and that’s very important.

DM: Well Mr Johnson, I just want to rewind a little bit because you seem to suggest that perhaps the journalists, and indeed a Sky News journalist, might have been making it up.  Now in the past we know that as a journalist you did that kind of thing, surely it is accurate reporting …

BORIS JOHNSON: I’m sorry, I think … look I think, with great respect Dermot your story was a dud, it was wrong, it was a load of old baloney.  That’s not your fault, perhaps it’s not even the fault of the journalist, I don’t necessarily blame him.  He was offered something which is completely untrue, it’s nonsense, I think most of your viewers will understand exactly what my position is, it’s been my position for a very long time, all right.

DM: Do you think there is a campaign to destabilise you, wherever it’s coming from?

BORIS JOHNSON: No, I think there was one story which unfortunately was not right, I’m glad that it’s been corrected and people can understand what we’re trying to do.  With great respect to Sky News and all your magnificent journalism, that story did not quite reflect my views and those are that you can have immigration but it has got to be controlled.  You have also got to take back control of your money, you’ve got to take back control of our democracy, of our laws and you have got to be in a position to do free trade deals and that’s what the Prime Minister wants to achieve.

DM: And just tell me on Brexit, are you in favour – again it has been floated around today that David Davis, the Brexit Minister and yourself, are in favour of some kind of continuing payments to the European Union after Brexit for some kind of access, is that something you could live with?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well what David has said is that’s the kind of thing that could be considered but we are not getting into, as you know, a running commentary on our negotiations.  I think I have given you a pretty fair four point analysis of what we need to achieve – control of borders, control of money, control of laws and the ability to do free trade deals.  Within those ideas, those very simple ideas, is a wealth of information about the kind of deal that we want and I’ve no doubt that we can achieve it and it will be good not just for the UK, it will be good for the whole of Europe as well.

DM: Two quick fire questions to end: you may be aware that I recently interviewed your Shadow, the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry.  She accused me of doing a pub quiz on her and I wouldn’t ask you questions like this, who is the French Foreign Minister?  The name please.  

BORIS JOHNSON: If you want to have a pub quiz, Dermot, I’ll be very happy  to meet you in the pub but the French Foreign Minister is mon ami, Jean-Marc Ayrault, I know him very well and by the way he is an example of the kind of … Jean-Marc and I, if you look back over the history of it, Jean-Marc began our relationship by saying some pretty crusty things about me, some pretty frosty things I should say, and that has changed a huge amount and people across the EU and the wider world are now seeing not the downsides, they are seeing the possibilities, the opportunities, all the exciting things we can do with the Brexit vote, how to build and even more global Britain and that’s what I’ve been talking about and people are very encouraged by some of the things they are hearing from London.  

DM: And just a last quick stab at the other question Emily struggled with, South Korean President and all her troubles?

BORIS JOHNSON: We are not getting into a pub quiz about the leaders around the world and I am going to, with great respect, invite you out to the pub Dermot so that we can take these conversations further.  I have a terrible feeling that if I keep answering you, you’ll keep coming back with more.  Have a good morning, see you.

DM: It was only the truth.  Oh don’t you want enlightenment?  You might been meeting her, Park Geun-Hye, the South Korean President and bye-bye there to the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, there talking to us in the main about Brexit. One out of two ain’t bad.