Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on Theresa May's Brexit strategy, saying the “dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt”.

In his letter resigning as foreign secretary he claimed the prime minister was leading the UK into a “semi-Brexit” with the “status of a colony”.

His resignation came hours after Brexit Secretary David Davis quit the cabinet.

Mrs May insists her plans are the “the best way to honour” the Brexit vote, amid a deepening political crisis.

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Johnson’s exit had turned an “embarrassing and difficult situation for the PM into potentially a full-blown crisis”, fuelling speculation about a leadership challenge.

Mrs May’s official spokesman said she would fight any attempt to oust her if the required 48 Tory MPs called for a contest.

What Johnson says in his resignation letter

Mr Johnson does not pull any punches, telling Theresa May Brexit “should be about opportunity and hope” and a “chance to do things differently”, but “that dream is dying, suffocated by needless self doubt”.

He claims crucial decisions have been postponed, including preparations for a “no deal” scenario, “with the result that we appear to be heading for a semi-Brexit, with large parts of the economy still locked in the EU system, but with no UK control over that system”.

“It now seems that the opening bid of our negotiations involves accepting that we are not actually going to be able to make our own laws,” he says.

“In that respect we are truly headed for the status of colony – and many will struggle to see the economic or political advantages of that particular arrangement.”

He said he had congratulated the PM on Friday on getting the cabinet to sign up to her proposals at their Chequers away day, admitting that there were too few ministers on his side of the argument to get their way.

The government now had a “song to sing” on Brexit, he added: “The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat”. (BBC)

Update news