Former first minister Alex Salmond has hit out at “bumbling” Boris Johnson for “clowning around” with the jobs and livelihoods of millions of people.
The Gordon MP also accused the foreign secretary of viewing the future of the UK economy “purely from the vantage point of his own career”.
His intervention came after a exchange during yesterday’s Foreign Office Questions in the Commons.
In the chamber, Mr Salmond asked Mr Johnson whether he campaigned for Turkey’s accession to the EU as a reason to get the UK out or whether he campaigned to pull the UK out in order to support Turkey’s accession.
The former London mayor said he was a “passionate advocate” of Turkish membership of the EU, “always provided the UK has left before that day”.
The ex-SNP leader then raised an article, written by Mr Johnson after the referendum campaign, arguing for full participation in the single market.
He asked: “If it was okay for the leader of the Brexiteers to argue for full participation in the single marketplace after the referendum, why is it not okay for people on this side of the House to try to force that issue to a vote in the House of Commons?”
Mr Johnson said it was “completely unrealistic” to expect the UK Government to put their negotiating position to a Commons vote before the Brexit negotiations are concluded, insisting such a procedure had never happened before.
He later described the so-called three Brexiteers – himself, David Davis and Liam Fox – as a “nest of singing birds”.
Commenting afterwards, Mr Salmond claimed the foreign secretary had displayed “extraordinary levels of confusion and contradiction over the UK’s access to the single market”.
He added: “However the joke is no longer just about Boris. His political gymnastics are now clowning around with the jobs and livelihoods of millions of people.”