Change Brexit course or face 'total surrender,' Boris Johnson warns

Former British foreign ministerBoris Johnson called again on Sunday for U.K. Prime Minister TheresaMay to change course on Brexit, accusing her of forcing througha deal to keep the country locked in the EU's customs union in a"total surrender."

It was the latest call by Johnson, a key figurehead in Britain's campaign to leave the European Union, for May to dropher so-called Chequers plans in favour of negotiating a cleanbreak with the bloc and securing afree trade deal similar to the one the EU recently sealed with Canada.

His comments come days after his brother, fellowConservative lawmaker Jo Johnson, resigned as a transportminister over Brexit.

Boris Johnson said he agreed with hisbrother that the Brexit talks were "the biggest failure of U.K. statecraft since Suez" when Britain lost control of the waterwayin the 1950s.

"I really can't believe it but this government seems to beon the verge of total surrender," he wrote in his weekly columnin the Telegraph newspaper.

"I want you to savour the full horror of this capitulation... we are on the verge of signing up for something even worsethan the current constitutional position. These are the termsthat might be enforced on a colony."

Johnson accused the government of being unable to negotiatea way to end unilaterally a so-called backstop arrangement,designed to prevent the return of border controls between the Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.,and EU member Ireland.

Such a failure would turn Britain into "a vassal state"until the bloc decided to move on to trade talks, he said.

"It is frankly hard to see why they should," he wrote,adding that May's Chequers plans, named after her countryresidence, were very much alive despite widespread criticism.

"The essence of the idea that the UK should remain in thecustoms union and the single market for goods and agri-food iswhat the backstop entails. And you can be absolutely sure thatthis idea will be at the heart of the 'deal' that I have nodoubt the prime minister will shortly and magically secure."

Johnson's latest Brexit-related missive to May came on the same weekend France and Germany's leaders hailed the reconciliation and co-operation shared between European countries since the end of the First and Second World Wars and the creation of shared institutions such as the EU.

Johnson has long been rumoured to covet the keys to 10 Downing Street and has become one of May's fiercest rivalssince quitting her cabinet in July.