Boris Johnson was forced to defend his leadership bid during an intense one-on-one interview with BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg after his refusal to appear on a televised debate with opponent Jeremy Hunt. Mr Johnson insisted he would be able to come to an agreement with the European Union to eliminate the controversial backstop from any future agreement with Britain. But Ms Kuenssberg refuted his argument: “They want it done in the EU but they do not want it done at any cost.

“Time and again whether it is Jean-Claude Juncker, President Macron, any EU leaders, they have been crystal clear; there is no kind of deal without the backstop, an insurance policy for Northern Ireland. So what evidence do you have you can get around that?”

The former Foreign Secretary, who resigned from Cabinet in July 2018 over opposition to the Chequers agreement Theresa May had struck with Brussels, said his prediction a deal could be struck was based on the EU wanting “Brexit to be done.”

Ms Kuenssberg hit back: “It’s what people want, but that’s very different to want people get, Boris Johnson.

“But how do you do that? Because you’re right – everybody wants a solution to this. But if you want to be prime minister you have to tell people how, you can’t just wish it to be true.”

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Mr Johnson said: “On the other side of the channel obviously where you know they’re watching this very carefully and we need obviously for both sides to come together they’ve not got 29 Brexit MEPs in Strasbourg.

“They have the 39 billion that they’re keen to get. And frankly, they also want Brexit to be done.

“I think that it is what the gentlemen have also said and what people have also said in all European capitals, and of course in the commission is that nobody wants a hard border in Northern Ireland and indeed nobody believes that it will be necessary. And so what we need is to hold that thought, which is true, which is agreed amongst all.

“And make sure that we reach the solutions that are achievable as both sides have said, as the Commission has said, the facilitations that can be reached make sure that we deal with the solutions to the Irish border question and any all other border questions because the Irish border question in microcosm stands for all the other facilitations that we’ll around the EU.”

The Tory leadership frontrunner insisted there are “abundant technical fixes” available to avoid the introduction of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Irish backstop emerged as one of the most controversial aspects of the Brexit negotiations and resulted in the resignation of Theresa May after her proposed withdrawal agreement was rejected three times in the Commons.

Mr Johnson continued: “Everybody accepts that there are ways you can check for the rules of origin, there are ways you can check for compliance with EU goods and standards, of our goods standards.”

When Ms Kuenssberg pointed out some of the solutions he was hinting at “don’t exist yet,” Mr Johnson hit back: “Well, they do actually, you have in very large measure they do, you have trusted trader schemes, all sorts of schemes that you could put into place.

“There’s no single magic bullet. But there is a wealth of experience, a wealth of solutions. And what’s changed now is that there is a real positive energy about getting it done.”

The interview with the BBC marked the first official appearance from Mr Johnson following the leadership debate last week. Mr Johnson agreed to take part in two debates during the Tory contest after snubbing one and forcing Sky News to cancel another after his team failed to respond to the invitation on time. 

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