Rachel Johnson blasts her brother's 'reprehensible' language

Rachel Johnson has called the language her brother used at the dispatch box in the House of Commons "tasteless".

Appearing on The Pledge to be aired on Sky News tonight, Ms Johnson said: "A lot of this language was initiated in the tabloids, because we had [headlines] like 'crush the saboteurs', we had the judiciary and remain MPs being 'enemies of the people', words like collaborationist, betrayal.

"My brother is using words like 'surrender' and 'capitulation' as if the people standing in the way of the blessed will of the people, as defined by the 17.4 million votes in 2016, should be hung, drawn, quartered, tarred, and feathered.

"I think that is highly reprehensible.

"I hope today in the Commons there will be some sort of deal on all sides that this sort of thing is utterly dialled down.

"It serves no purpose."

On Mr Johnson's reference to Jo Cox, she said: "I think it was particularly tasteless for those who are grieving a mother, MP and friend to say the best way to honour her memory is to deliver the thing she and her family campaigned against - Brexit.

"It was a very tasteless way of referring to the memory of a murdered MP, who was murdered by someone who said 'Britain first', obviously of the far right tendency, which is being whipped up by this sort of language."