Gloves off in Brexit battle
FIERY: PRIME MINISTER JOHNSON LOCKS HORNS WITH OPPOSITION LABOUR LEADER
Corbyn accused of pushing ‘economically disastrous’ renationalisation programme.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked horns on Wednesday with his rivals in a fiery launch to an unpredictable early general election aimed at breaking Britain’s protracted Brexit deadlock.
Johnson’s sparring with the main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn came a day after MPs backed the premier’s call for Britain’s third election in four years.
The December 12 poll was decided just a few hours after Brussels extended this week’s Brexit deadline to give London more time to figure out what it plans to do.
Parliament now has up until January 31 to either lend its support to Johnson’s divorce deal or even push for a second referendum on leaving the European Union that might help Britain move past its biggest political crisis since World War II.
Weary leaders in Europe will hope the vote ends the years of uncertainty that have chilled the business investment climate and required costly preparations for the possibility of a chaotic “nodeal” end to the 46-year relationship.
Johnson said at a record-breaking 71-minute question-and-answer session in parliament that the “only way to deliver a great Brexit is to vote for this party and for this government”.
He accused the socialist Labour leader of engaging in a “flipflop” over Brexit and pushing an “economically disastrous” renationalisation programme.
Corbyn shot back by claiming that the Conservative prime minister’s post-Brexit trade proposals were selling out British interests to US President Donald Trump.
“Despite his denials, [the National Health Service] is up for grabs by US corporations in a Trump-style trade deal,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn’s attack line underscores Labour’s desire to shift the campaign’s focus to traditional social issues and away from its past difficulties with Brexit, the defining issue of UK politics.
Britain’s first December vote in nearly 100 years and third general election in four years was all but confirmed on Wednesday after the legislation cleared its final hurdle in the House of Lords.
It finds Corbyn’s party splintered by bitter feuds.
Pro-European Union Labour supporters from big cities have been at loggerheads with Brexit-backing groups such as the powerful trade unions.
Some top party officials have further suggested the party should pick a new leader should it flounder at the polls.
But the 70-year-old Corbyn used his socialist message to stir up a young new support base that nearly helped Labour score a huge upset victory in the last general election in 2017.
Labour’s Brexit promise is to strike an agreement with Brussels that would preserve many of the existing trade ties.
– AFP