David Cameron setback: Boris Johnson sides with rebels

Boris Johnson, the influential mayor of London, will campaign for Britain to leave the EU in the run up to the June 23 referendum, the BBC reported on Sunday.

“Boris will campaign to leave the EU,” the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said on Twitter without citing sources. One source with knowledge of Mr Johnson’s decision confirmed to Reuters that he would back the “out” campaign.

Prime Minister David Cameron has cleared some key hurdles as he takes his first steps in what promises to be a bitter campaign ahead of an EU membership referendum in June, experts said. Starting with a reform deal struck at a EU summit on Friday, Mr Cameron went on to secure the support of the overwhelming majority of his Cabinet on Saturday. After the Cabinet meeting on Saturday, only six ministers said they would campaign for “Leave” on the referendum. The decision of justice secretary Michael Gove, a close personal friend and ally of Mr Cameron, to support “Leave” was a blow to the Premier, but the endorsement of heavyweights like home secretary Theresa May, foreign secretary Philip Hammond and defence secretary Michael Fallon was seen as crucial. One key uncertainty, however, is which way the mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is seen as a potential successor to Mr Cameron, will go.

Earlier, Mr Cameron made a last-ditch appeal to London mayor Boris Johnson Sunday to support Britain staying in the EU. Mr Cameron used a BBC interview to make a direct appeal to the charismatic Mr Johnson. “I would say to Boris what I say to everybody else which is we’ll be safer, we’ll be stronger, we’ll be better off inside the EU,” Mr Cameron said. “I think the prospect of linking arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway and taking a leap into the dark is the wrong step for our country.”

Rupert Murdoch’s Sun on Sunday newspaper said PM David Cameron had failed to get a proper deal for Britain from other EU leaders and was now on the wrong side of history by supporting membership. “Whatever we think of David Cameron’s deal and the case for remaining in the EU, we don’t doubt his sincerity. We just think he’s wrong,” the Sun on Sunday said in an editorial.