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Boris Johnson wants to remain as UK prime minister for longer than Margaret Thatcher as he seeks a decade in power, his colleagues have said.

Mr Johnson is hoping to win multiple elections in order to address the “catastrophic” economic mistakes of the past 40 years and use Brexit to rectify inequalities across the country, The Independent reported, citing  The Times.

“Boris will want to go on and on,” a cabinet minister told the newspaper. “The stuff Dom [Dominic Cummings] was saying about him going off into the sunset was nonsense. He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.”

Mr Cummings, a former top adviser to the PM, said earlier this year that Mr Johnson planned to leave office within two years after the next election so he could “make money and have fun”.

Setting out his pitch for the 2024 election for the first time, Mr Johnson said voters would be able to see his “great, great project” of levelling up making progress across Britain. “It’s going to take a while, it’s going to take 10 years,” he said.

The next general election is scheduled to take place in May 2024 – although the government is planning to abolish the UK’s fixed-term parliament legislation, allowing it to bring forward the date.

The report also suggested that Mr Johnson would attempt to frame the next election around Brexit, like he did in 2019, by warning that the UK would return to EU laws and regulations if Labour wins.