Boris Johnson: I am not a serious practicing Christian

Boris Johnson has said it would be "pretentious" to suggest that he is a "serious practicing Christian" even though he "thinks about religion a lot".

Mr Johnson, who is tipped as a future leader of the Conservative Party, has previously compared his faith to the radio reception of Magic FM in the Chilterns.

His views on religion contrast with those of David Cameron, who last year said he has found greater strength in religion and suggested Britain should be unashamedly "evangelical" about the Christian faith.

Mr Cameron had previously borrowed Mr Johnson's comparison with Magic FM to describe his faith, but in April revealed that he finds his "moments of greatest peace" while at Church.

During the Tony Blair era when Alastair Campbell, the then communications director in Downing Street, famously said “we don’t do God” amid concerns that religion would put off voters. Mr Blair converted to Catholicism two years after leaving Downing Street.

In an interview with Time magazine Mr Johnson said that it would not be "disastrous" if Britain leaves the European Union after a referendum in 2017.

He said: “I think Brexit is possible ... [Britain] would very rapidly come to an alternative arrangement that protected our basic trading interests. I must be clear. I think there would be a pretty testy, scratchy period ... [but] it wouldn’t be disastrous.”

Mr Johnson described himself as a "social liberal" and said that he could not see "what the fuss is about" on same-sex marriage.

He defended the benefits of immigration, describing the "monochrome" capital he remembers from the 1970s. He said: "Terrible stale gusts of beer and desiccated bleached white dog turds everywhere and old copies of [the sex magazine] Mayfair in bushes in the park.”

“They are in this country disguised as ice cream vans …. We’re confident that should the situation arise, authorisation would be forthcoming pretty quickly.”