Boris Johnson has threatened a rift with senior Tory colleagues by condemning the government’s aviation policy as “totally mad” and urging ministers to proceed faster with new economic growth measures.

The mayor of London, buoyed by strong poll ratings and a successful Olympic games, made the forthright comments in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. His observations left colleagues visibly irritated, with Iain Duncan Smith, welfare secretary, saying it was nonsense to suggest that the prime minister was simply sat “twiddling his thumbs” in Downing Street.

Despite hugging one another at an event during last week’s Olympics, relations between David Cameron and Mr Johnson are uncomfortable, not least because the latter is now the grassroots favourite to become the next leader of the Conservative party.

In his latest outspoken interview – in the Evening Standard – the mayor urged the government to “stop pussyfooting around” and get started on a clutch of new Read more