BORIS Johnson has said he’d be much richer if he didn’t become prime minister – but that he’s willing to make the “sacrifice” for Britain.
The big beast said he could make far more money elsewhere if he wanted to, but he was prepared to give it up to serve the country.
It comes as the Tory frontrunner has a 2 – 1 lead over his opponent in the latest poll of Conservative members.
Boris said during today’s hustings in Darlington that he had made sacrifices to go into politics.
“It is absolutely possible to make more money by not being in full time politics,” he said.
“You have to make sacrifices sometimes, and that is the right thing to do.”
He currently earns around £700,000 a year through his writing speaking and other commitments.
Tory donors have also plugged him with cash too, to fund his leadership campaign.
Boris said he probably wouldn’t have time to finish his book on Shakespeare for the time being, which has been repeatedly delayed.
He’s also penned a book about wartime hero Winston Churchill too.
As PM Boris would earn around £150,000 a year – far less than what he’s raking in now.
Boris also used today’s hustings to deny that he was kept out of secret intelligence briefings because of fears he would spill secrets.
“It’s not true,” he said. “But I can’t comment any further on intelligence matters.”
You have to make sacrifices sometimes, and that is the right thing to do
Boris Johnson
Mr Hunt refused to comment on the reports, revealed in The Sun today.
Boris also admitted that his straight-talking style had landed him in hot water in the past – but telling the truth was a good thing.
Defending his various gaffes in political life, he said: “I’m proud of many of them.
“Very often, a gaffe turns out to be the unvarnished… what you’re really doing id saying something that’s true and necessary.”
Other mistakes he was right to apologise for, he insisted.
Boris got into hot water over jailed mum Nazanin Zahari Ratcliffe when he was foreign secretary, mistakenly saying she may have been teaching journalism overseas when she was arrested in Iran.
She’s been imprisoned for years, separated from her five year old daughter and husband.
Today Cabinet Remainers lined up to blast Boris’ plan to leave without a deal if he can’t get the EU to change the current agreement.
Chancellor Philip Hammond insisted MPs would “find a way” to block it in Parliament.
Justice Secretary David Gauke and Cabinet minister David Lidington have also vowed to oppose it.
However, Boris insisted that Britain needs less “defeatism and negativity” in Government about Brexit.
“MPs seem still to be refusing to enact the mandate of the British people,” he said.
“We are facing an existential crisis as a party and indeed as a political class.”
Meanwhile Boris’ rival Jeremy Hunt hinted that the state pension age would have to rise again in future due to Britain’s ageing population.
He told the audience: “I think we are going to have to gradually raise the age at which people draw their pension because we are all living so much longer because we had an absolutely outstanding health secretary for six years who put years and years onto people’s life expectancy.”
And Mr Hunt got a boost today when ex-PM John Major announced he would be voting for him to be the next Tory leader, saying he couldn’t vote for someone who “misled the country” in the Brexit campaign.
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