Johnson to welcome new lawmakers to Parliament

Gloom and relief

LONDON, Dec 16, (AP): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to give a pep talk Monday to a new group of Conservative Party lawmakers as he begins his push to secure parliamentary approval for his Brexit deal.

Johnson will welcome 109 newly elected colleagues, many of them coming from parts of the country that were once strongholds of the opposition Labour Party.

Buoyed by the party’s decisive win in last week’s election, Johnson will move fast to deliver on his campaign mantra to “get Brexit done.” That means ensuring a Brexit withdrawal agreement bill is passed in time for the UK to complete its historic departure from the European Union by the current deadline of Jan 31.

Johnson has promised to bring the bill to the House of Commons before Christmas. It is expected to receive strong support in Parliament, where Johnson’s Conservatives hold a strong majority. The party won 365 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in Thursday’s landslide election.

If the bill passes and Britain leaves the EU on time, the country will enter a transition period when EU rules and regulations would still apply in the country and people and goods would still be able to pass freely between the UK and the remaining EU members.

Negotiators for the British government and the EU would start trade talks with an eye toward reaching a comprehensive post-Brexit agreement.

Johnson

Open

Queen Elizabeth II will formally open Parliament on Thursday with a speech outlining the government’s legislative program.

The pomp and ceremony surrounding the queen’s speech will be less lavish than usual because she last formally opened Parliament just two months ago for what turned out to be a session that was cut short by a vote for an early election. New lawmakers took to Twitter to chronicle their first day at work.

The new representative for Bury in northwest England, Christian Wakeford, tweeted: “Reality with a bump, 5:33 train down to #Westminster not a morning person at all but couldn’t be happier to be on this train.”

Elsewhere, clouds of sadness are hovering the political capital of the European Union following the landslide election victory of Boris Johnson.

The leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament Manfred Weber could also not hide his gloom.

“Brexit is a mistake, but short-term pain is better than long-term pain. Let’s get it done,” he said in comments to the media.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said Brexit is “’bad news for Europe” and Michael Heseltine, a former UK deputy prime minister, admitted, “the battle for Britain to remain in the European Union has been lost.”

The victory of the Conservatives has put the UK on course to leave the European Union by next month.

“We will get Brexit done on time on the 31st of January, no ifs, no buts, no maybes,” a jubilant Johnson told his supporters after the election results were announced in London.