Boris Johnson wants to be in charge for another DECADE: Prime Minister ‘will want to go on and on’ as he aims to outlast Margaret Thatcher’s 11-year tenure

• The Prime Minister said that his ‘levelling up’ agenda would take 10 years
• He said he was determined to avoid the economic failures of past 40 years
• Interview with Boris Johnson was carried out for new book – ‘Broken Heartlands’

Boris Johnson is eyeing another decade in power as he aims to beat Margaret Thatcher’s term in office.

The Prime Minister said in an interview that his ‘levelling up’ agenda would take 10 years.

He said was determined to avoid some of the ‘catastrophic’ economic failures of the past 40 years.

Mr Johnson said he would be seeking to frame the 2024 election around Brexit – warning that Britain would ‘slump back’ into following EU laws and regulations under Labour.

And he claimed that his ‘great, great project’ of levelling up would benefit both north and south.

The Prime Minister said in an interview that his ‘levelling up’ agenda would take 10 years

‘It’s going to take a while – it’s going to take 10 years,’ he said.

The interview with Mr Johnson was carried out for a new book – ‘Broken Heartlands’, which is being serialised in The Times.

One Cabinet minister told the paper: ‘Boris will want to go on and on.

‘The stuff Dom [Cummings] was saying about him going off into the sunset [to make money] was nonsense. He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.’

Mrs Thatcher was in Downing Street for eleven and a half years.

Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings had alleged that the PM would not last in Downing Street as he wished to make more money.

May 4, 1979: Margaret Thatcher, with husband Denis Thatcher, waves to well-wishers outside Number 10 Downing Street following her election victory

He claimed Mr Johnson planned to step down to ‘make money and have fun’ within two years after the next election.

The Times quoted Mr Johnson as saying, in an upcoming book by Financial Times journalist Sebastian Payne: ‘I do think the risk is if we were to be stopped, if we were to be pushed out, the whole thing will slump back.

‘We will be back into half of the things of the European Union before we could say it.’

The Times said that Mr Johnson wanted to build a legacy, with a view that reforms to the NHS and social care – through a rise in national insurance – announced this week playing a part in that.

And the newspaper reported that Mr Johnson, who became Prime Minister in 2019, wanted to fix the economy and use Brexit in the next election, expected in 2024.

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