Boris Johnson had an easy ride at his campaign launch

Boris Johnson made his pitch to become PM at a spirited mini-rally in central London.

He began with a swipe at the stalling economies of the Eurozone which he compared unfavourably with ‘the commercial dynamism of the British people.’ His one-nation pitch bore almost too many adman’s sound-bites.

He called England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland ‘the quartet’, and ‘the awesome foursome’. Together they make Britain ‘the soft-power superpower of the world’.

Towards the EU he was generous. He referred to them as ‘our friends and partners’, somewhat insistently and he hoped that Brussels would adopt his upbeat mood about Brexit.

‘I think there will be a symmetrical enthusiasm about getting this thing done’.

He wasn’t aiming for no deal, but it would be ‘astonishing… to dispense with that vital tool of negotiation.’

His pitch was aimed at his own party, as well as the country, and he recalled his record as a veteran socialist-basher.

‘I know the London Labour left.