UK PM rejects electoral pact

Johnson leads

LONDON, Nov 2, (RTRS): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put his Brexit withdrawal deal at the centre of his election campaign, rejecting an electoral pact with the Brexit Party that would mean he would have to embrace leaving the European Union without a deal.

Johnson had previously pledged to take Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal on Oct 31, before lawmakers voted to force him to seek an extension until Jan 31.

But he has abandoned the threat of a nodeal Brexit in his Conservative Party’s manifesto for the Dec 12 election, the Times newspaper reported on Saturday. It added that the focus would be on getting his Brexit deal approved.

On Friday, Johnson rejected a call from the Brexit Party to drop the deal he negotiated with the European Union last month in order to form a new electoral pact, saying that he could put his deal through parliament after any election win.

“What we’ve got is a fantastic deal that nobody thought we could get,” Johnson said. “As soon as we get back in the middle of December, we can put that deal through.”

Nicky Morgan, the culture minister who is standing down as a lawmaker, said a vote for the Conservatives would be a vote against no deal.

Leave

“If you vote Conservative at this election, you’re voting to leave with this deal, and no-deal has been effectively been taken off the table,” she told the Times in an interview.

In Britain’s tortuous road since a 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU, businesses and economists have cautioned that leaving the bloc without a deal to smooth the transition would deliver a big blow to the British economy.

Proponents of a no-deal Brexit say it provides a clean break from EU rules and regulations.

The Conservative manifesto will also not include a commitment to a fiscal rule, the Times reported, relaxing the government’s grip on public finances. The Conservative party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government’s previous fiscal rule pledged to hold the underlying budget deficit below 2% of the country’s economic output in the 2020/21 financial year.

Opinion polls give Johnson a sizeable lead over the main opposition Labour Party, but also suggest that more than 10% of voters back the Brexit Party – enough to split the pro-Brexit vote in some seats and hand victory to Labour.

Hardline Brexit advocate Nigel Farage opened his UK election campaign on Friday by telling Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson that his Brexit Party will contest every seat unless Johnson drops his EU divorce deal and agrees an election pact.

The call was swiftly rejected by Johnson and his party.

The snap election, set for Dec 12, is highly unpredictable so an alliance on either side of the Brexit schism could be a game changer after nearly four years of political crisis over Britain’s decision to quit the European Union.

Farage cast his proposal as a nonaggression pact.

Drop

Johnson

“I will say this to Boris Johnson: drop the deal because it is not Brexit, drop the deal because, as weeks go by and people discover what it is you will have signed up, they will not like it,” he told reporters at the launch. “This is not Brexit.”

“He is trying to sell a secondhand motor where he has polished up the bonnet but actually, underneath, nothing has changed, and it is Mrs May’s appalling surrender treaty,” Farage added. Johnson predecessor May agreed a less radical divorce with the EU, but had it rejected by parliament three times.

Farage has shown in the past that he can unnerve Conservative leaders with the threat of poaching their voters.

Opinion polls give Johnson a healthy lead over the main opposition Labour Party, but also suggest that more than 10% of voters back the Brexit Party – enough to split the pro-Brexit vote in some seats and hand victory to Labour.

Farage said that if Johnson rejected his proposal, the Brexit Party would fight for votes in every seat.

Instead he proposed to stand aside in around 500 seats in return for the Conservatives giving his party a clear run in about 150 seats where he thought the Brexit Party had a better chance of winning. He gave Johnson until Nov 14 to consider.