Boris Johnson criticised after comparing EU’s aims to Hitler’s

Boris Johnson has been attacked for losing his “moral compass” by making “offensive and desperate” comments that compare European Union efforts to build a superstate to Hitler’s attempt to dominate Europe.

Johson, who is leading the Brexit campaign ahead of Britain’s European Union membership referendum, said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, that the bloc was following the same path of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon by trying to create a European superstate.

He said the past 2,000 years of European history had been dominated by doomed attempts to unify the continent under a single government to recreate the “golden age” of the Romans.

“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods,” he said.

“But fundamentally, what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void,” the former London mayor said.

Responding to the comments, the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, said: “Leave campaigners have lost the economic argument and now they are losing their moral compass.

“After the horror of the second world war, the EU helped to bring an end to centuries of conflict in Europe, and for Boris Johnson to make this comparison is both offensive and desperate.”

Johnson’s comments were also condemned by the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, with Labour former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper accusing him of playing a “nasty, nasty game.”

“The more he flails around with this kind of hysterical claim, the more he exposes his shameful lack of judgement, his willingness to play the most divisive cynical politics, and the emptiness of his arguments,” she said.

“One week it is dog whistle attacks on President Obama. Now he is trying to liken the institution that has kept peace on our continent for decades with Hitler, who pursued the genocide of millions of innocent people.”

“All because he is desperately seeking headlines for a desperate campaign. He should not try to play political games with the darkest and most sinister chapter of Europe's history. The EU has played a critical role keeping peace in Europe ever since,” she said.

Cooper’s intervention came as Ukip leader Nigel Farage backed Johnson to succeed David Cameron if there is a vote to leave the EU in the referendum on June 23. The Ukip leader described himself as a “Boris fan” and compared him to the former US president Ronald Reagan.

Cameron has always insisted that he will carry on regardless of the result but many MPs believe he will have no choice but to resign if the country rejects his call to remain.

Johnson, who is a front-runner to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, has emerged as the most important voice in the "Out" camp ahead of the June 23 referendum.

Cameron, who is leading the "In" campaign, has argued that Britain's membership of the EU makes the country more secure, more influential and more prosperous. He also says Britain, which is not part of the single-currency euro zone, will not be dragged into ever closer union among the EU's member states.

But an opinion poll published earlier on Saturday suggested that twice the number of voters believed Johnson was more likely to tell the truth about the EU than Cameron.

With less than six weeks to go until the referendum, voters are evenly split between wanting to remain in the EU and preferring to leave, other opinion polls have shown.