BORIS RALLY CRY: GET BREXIT DONE TO FIX DIVIDED BRITAIN
BRITAIN does not have “a prayer” of healing the divisions over Brexit until the country leaves the EU, Boris Johnson declared yesterday.
On the opening day of the Tory conference, the Prime Minister made an impassioned plea for him to be allowed to finish the job of getting the UK out of the EU on October 31 and end the anger poisoning the debate.
“The best way to end this is to get Brexit done on October 31st and move the country forward. And that is what we are going to do,” he promised.
He also hinted that he could be helped in delivering Brexit by one or more EU leaders making clear they will veto any request for a further delay to the departure date.
But he refused to apologise for using tough language to take on his opponents in the parliamentary row over the Brussels divorce.
“I think I’ve been a model of restraint. But I think everybody should calm down,” the Prime
Minister said.
Mr Johnson made his plea in a BBC interview on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday.
He repeatedly rebuffed accusations that his own rhetoric was fuelling the national rift over Brexit, insisting the row could not be resolved until the country was free of Brussels rule.
“We haven’t got a prayer of uniting the country until we get Brexit over the line,” he said.
“What we need to do is move on – and the way to do that is to get Brexit done on October 31.
“I think that the best thing for the country and the best thing for people’s overall psychological health, would be to get Brexit done.”
Mr Johnson described violent threats to MPs as “deplorable” but rejected calls for toning down his rhetoric following widespread condemnation of the ill-tempered debate in the Commons last week.
“Let’s be in no doubt that the threats to MPs, the abuse of MPs, particularly female MPs, is absolutely deplorable and something that we do a great deal in Parliament and as a government to try to counteract, to give MPs the security that they deserve,” the Prime Minister said.
“I want to make a very important distinction between that issue of threats and abuse directed at MPs which is totally unacceptable and which we have to prevent, and what I think is the legitimate use of old, tried and trusted metaphors to describe certain parliamentary Acts or indeed events in politics.”
Mr Johnson refused to stop referring to legislation drafted by Remainer MPs to outlaw a no-deal Brexit as the “Surrender Act”.
He said: “I think it is wrong that parliamentarians should be crowded out from using words like surrender.
“I think what is happening, if I may say so, is that there is an attempt to conceal the effect of the Surrender Act by a great cloud of indignation about the use of that term.
“And unfortunately the Act is intended to make it more difficult for the UK to negotiate.”
The Prime Minister hit out at Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party for repeatedly blocking his request for an early general election to break the deadlock in Parliament.
“I think the most honourable thing for the Opposition to do would be to fulfil their constitutional function and to agree to have an election,” he said.
However, he repeated his insistence that he would not do a deal with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party when the next election comes.
Asked if he might consider a pact, the Prime Minister said: “No. And there’s a good reason for that. And that is that the Conservative Party is the oldest, greatest political party in the world.
“It’s a big broad church and we do not do deals with other
parties. And we’re going to deliver Brexit, we’re going to deliver it on October 31st.”
The Prime Minister did not deny a suggestion that he may have asked one or more European leaders to be prepared to veto any request for a further extension of the EU’s Article 50 departure process.
“I’m not going to discuss a hypothetical situation that may arise if and when the Benn [Surrender] Act were to come into effect,” he said. “And I’m not going to get into my discussions with any other European Union head of state about the negotiations because they’re interesting – but they’re also delicate.”
He added: “I think it is certainly true that other EU countries also don’t want this thing to keep dragging on.
“And they don’t want the UK to remain in the EU truculent and mutinous and in a limbo and not wishing to co-operate in the way that they would like.
“They want a good deal. There’s the opportunity now to get a good deal. What I would like is for the Government to be able to get on and do that deal.”
Mr Johnson took another swipe at the Supreme Court for ruling his attempt to prorogue Parliament unlawful.
He said: “I think that the judgement by the 11 justices was certainly novel and peculiar.
“They went against the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice, in extending the remit of the court into what was, I think, obviously a political question. And the consequences of that decision are going to be working their way through for quite some time.”
And he said felt delivering Brexit on time was his “responsibility” to the country.
“I’ve undertaken to lead the party and my country at a difficult time and I’m going to continue to do that,” he said.
“I believe it’s my responsibility to do that and I think that it’s our job to get Brexit done on October 31st.”