BOJO’S DIRTY BREXTRICK
Major: I’ll never forgive Johnson if he uses loophole for no-deal Brexit
JOHN Major last night accused Boris Johnson of having plans to exploit a loophole to force through a no-deal Brexit.
In a blistering attack on his own party, former prime minister Major revealed how the Tory Government
BORIS Johnson has ducked criticism of his inflammatory language – despite an MP telling him her office was attacked by a man calling her a fascist.
The “bully” Prime Minister was under siege yesterday from opponents, who are furious at his choice of words on Brexit.
Labour MP Jess Phillips, who said her staff had to be locked in the office yesterday while a man tried to “smash the windows” and “kick the door”, accused Johnson of inflaming hatred and division.
And Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson was moved to tears in Parliament as she described death threats aimed at her children.
If that wasn’t bad enough for Johnson, even his own sister slammed his language.
Broadcaster and journalist Rachel Johnson said some of the PM’s language was “tasteless”.
She added: “My brother is using words like ‘surrender’, ‘capitulation’ – as if the people who are standing in the way of the blessed will of the people as defined by 17.4million votes in 2016 should be hung, drawn, quartered, tarred and feathered – and I think that is highly reprehensible language to use.”
She also said Johnson used the Commons despatch box as a “bully pulpit”.
She added: “I love him very much and he’s a different person in the Commons.
“It’s not the brother I see at home. It’s a different person.”
Birmingham and Yardley MP Phillips was at the forefront of the MPs who told the Prime Minister to apologise for his language in the Commons on Wednesday night – after he had been forced to the despatch box by a Supreme Court ruling.
During those exchanges, there were several references to Labour BY TORCUIL CRICHTON Westminster Editor Jo Cox, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016.
Johnson told one MP that her concerns about aggressive language fuelling violence were “humbug” and another that the best way to honour Cox was to “get Brexit done”.
In an urgent question in the Commons yesterday, Phillips said the PM’s choice of words had been designed to “inflame hatred and division”.
But, rather than appearing in person in the aftermath of the outrage he had caused, Johnson sent junior minister Kevin Foster to the despatch box with a folder full of excuses.
Johnson instead chose to address the backbench 1922 Committee, where he told Tory MPs that he will continue to use the phrase “surrender Bill” to refer to the Act passed to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Later, in a TV interview, he accepted that “tempers need to come down” in Parliament but implied again that MPs would only be safe if they voted for Brexit.
Johnson said: “We do need to bring people together and get this thing done – and people need to come together, because it’s only by getting Brexit done that you’ll lance the boil of the current anxiety and we will be able to get on with the domestic agenda.”
The Prime Minister added he “totally deplores any threats to anybody, particularly female MPs”.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Johnson’s use of terms such as “betrayal” and “surrender” risked driving some people to “unbelievable extremes”.
He added: “The Prime Minister’s language is encouraging people to behave in a disgraceful and abusive way to other public figures. “I’ve witnessed it myself on the streets in this country.” Former Labour leader Ed Miliband told MPs: “All of us need to take care of our language, and none of us is at fault, but the Prime Minister of our country holds a special responsibility. “I say to members across the House, I spent fourMP and-a-half years opposite David Cameron and I never saw a performance like the performance we saw last night from this Prime Minister.
“Everyone in this House shares the frustration of the last three-anda-half years, but none of us can agree that the safety of members in this House should depend on the way they voted in this House.
“It is a disgrace that the Prime Minister said this yesterday, he should apologise and the minister should apologise on his behalf.”
Speaker John Bercow warned MPs to treat each other as “opponents not as enemies”.
Opening the session, he said: “I think there is a widespread sense that yesterday the House did itself no credit.
“There was an atmosphere in the chamber worse than any I’ve known in my 22 years in the House. On both sides passions were inflamed, angry words were uttered, the culture was toxic.”
West Midlands Police confirmed a man was arrested outside Phillips’s office yesterday afternoon.
A spokeswoman said: “A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and possession of cannabis. He will be questioned in due course.” BRENDAN COX’S PLEA: PAGE 6