Boris Johnson urges Conservatives to back May but 'chuck Chequers'

Birmingham, England (dpa) - Outspoken former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Theresa May‘s Conservative party to back her leadership but reject her "Chequers" proposals for Brexit.Johnson, who resigned from May‘s cabinet in July over his opposition to the plan, said the Chequers proposals were a "constitutional outrage" that would leave Britain "locked in the tractor beam of Brussels" after it leaves the European Union in March."It is dangerous and unstable - politically and economically," Johnson told hundreds of supporters during his speech at an event that coincided with the party‘s annual conference in the central city of Birmingham.May‘s plan is to create a free-trade area for goods and agricultural products, keeping the sectors under EU single market rules and ensuring an open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. But the plan would see Britain leaving the single market for services, which accounts for some 80 per cent of its economy."My fellow Conservatives, this is not democracy. This is not what we voted for," Johnson said in his speech, referring to the 2016 Brexit referendum, when a majority of 52 per cent voted to leave the EU."Chuck Chequers," he added, to loud applause.Johnson advocated policies including devolution of public finances, tax cuts and and an export drive.He said a focus on trade with the EU, since the 1970, "makes much less sense today, in the globalized economy."