Boris mobbed as campaign trail hits the West Midlands

The Tory leadership contender visited the Wombourne Civic Centre where he posed for pictures and chatted with supporters and members.

At one point he was surrounded by a group of teenagers outside the South Staffordshire venue, who shouted “go on Boris” and took selfies with him.

Once inside he paused to salute the Express & Star, where he worked as a journalist for a brief period in the 1980s.

Mr Johnson remains the clear favourite in the battle with Jeremy Hunt, despite concerns over his private life and accusations that he has dodged scrutiny by refusing to take part in debates.

He spent the morning at a members’ hustings in Exeter, before travelling up to the West Midlands to meet with Gavin Williamson, the South Staffordshire MP who ran the successful parliamentary part of his leadership campaign.

He laid out his campaign pitch to a packed crowd that included MPs’ Eddie Hughes, Mark Pritchard, Mike Wood, Amanda Milling and PPC Stuart Anderson as well as local councillors.

Mr Johnson told the crowd he would offer a “sensible, modern Conservatism” that would benefit the country whole country.

He spoke of the need to deliver Brexit as a matter of urgency – a comment that was greeted with loud cheers from the crowd – in a bid to fight off the developing threat of the Brexit Party and the Lib Dems.

He pledged to look after Britain’s EU nationals and sort out the problems with the Irish border, and insisted that Britain would be ready to come out of the bloc at the end of October “whatever happens”.

He said the UK was a “great country” that could rise to any challenges, and added: “Are you really telling me that we can’t get ready to come out of the EU on October 31? Of course we can.”

He insisted Britain would leave the EU on “very good” terms that would “protect business and protect citizens”.

In a jibe at anti-Brexit scaremongers, he added: “Whatever happens there will be drinking water and the planes will fly – and there will be enough whey for them to make Mars bars in Slough.” Mr Johnson repeated his claim that his record as London Mayor proved he could bring success, and spoke of the importance of rolling out high speed broadband across the whole country.

Of the Conservative Party, he said: “We haven’t believed in ourselves for the past three years.

“Let’s get out there and sell the case for modern Conservatism again. When we do we will see a recovery in our political fortunes.”

Mr Johnson also insisted he was the only candidate who could prepare the party to defeat Jeremy Corbyn.

Earlier, in the south west hustings, he had called for a “points-based immigration system”, so that “we don’t just have people coming in without jobs to go to.”

He said freedom of movement “does not work” and that “welcoming of talent” from abroad “must be controlled”.

He also urged Iran to “continue to show restraint” over its nuclear programme, saying it was one of the many issues where US President Donald Trump had “talked sense”.

And while Mr Johnson said he did not want an early general election, he vowed to “wallop Jeremy Corbyn for six” after Brexit was done. He also refused to rule out suspending Parliament in order to force through Brexit.

Meanwhile Mr Hunt said he would "love" to have Mr Johnson in his cabinet, and joked that he would make his rival the "Secretary of State for collective responsibility" in his government.

"Boris is someone of enormous talent, he's changed the course of our history through his leadership of the Leave campaign and he should always have a very big role in taking things forward," he told party members.

"In terms of what role he would have I think that's a discussion that I would have with him in that situation. Would I serve him? Of course – we're in an incredibly difficult situation.

"I think whoever doesn't win in this contest needs to put their shoulder to the wheel and serve loyally the winner so that we can get through this, get to the other side, and give the country all the exciting things that we want to do."

Mr Hunt said he loved his current job as Foreign Secretary, adding: "I think these are the details and I think the important thing is that both of us should be willing to serve the other if things don't work out the way that we want."

It came as a new YouGov poll saw Mr Johnson hold a 10 per cent lead over Mr Hunt for Conservative voters, while among the general public Mr Hunt led by 12 per cent.

Conservative members will vote for the party’s new leader next month, with the winner to be announced on July 22.