FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018 file photo, Britain's former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reacts to seeing photographers taking his picture as he sits in a spectator seat whilst attending the fifth cricket test match of a five match series between England and India at the Oval cricket ground in London. Boris Johnson says Prime Minister Theresa May's blueprint for Brexit will lead to "political and economic disaster," and refuses to rule out trying to replace her. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
LONDON - Ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has branded British Prime Minister Theresa May's plan for leaving the European Union "deranged," fueling tensions as the ruling Conservative Party gathers for its annual conference.
Johnson told the Sunday Times that May's Brexit plan won't work, particularly proposals that would require Britain and the EU to collect each other's tariffs.
Johnson says it's "entirely preposterous. The idea that we could ask customs officers in Dubrovnik and Santander to charge British-only tariffs is deranged, and nobody thinks it can work."
May's plan would keep Britain in the EU's single market for goods, while letting the country write its own rules on services and strike free-trade deals with third parties. EU leaders have rejected that idea, saying the U.K. wants the benefits of membership without accepting its responsibilities.
FILE- In this Wednesday, June 13, 2018 file photo, Britain's Foreign Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London. Britain's governing Conservative Party is at war - with itself. The divide is over Europe, and only thing the two feuding factions agree on is that their leader, Prime Minister Theresa May, is heading in the wrong direction. Flamboyant former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who quit the government in July, on Friday, Sept. 28 called May's plan "a moral and intellectual humiliation" for Britain. So May will be under attack from all sides when the Conservatives open their annual conference Sunday in the central England city of Birmingham.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)