Johnson rejects calls to sack key adviser
drivers, ferries and staff are all potentially in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“We need to ensure that continuity of supply,” the civil servant warns. That was a potential problem no matter when Brexit happened. However the new expectation of leaving as winter arrives will add extra pressures.
When the Senedd was recalled earlier this week Plaid Cymru AM and GP Dai Lloyd said there would be “significant challenges” in getting the flu vaccine.
“We will be facing a flu epidemic without the main defence against that epidemic.”
While the bunker will come into its own days before the UK leaves the EU the wider civil service began preparing on the day after the referendum in June 2016, including the legislation and things needed to ensure the country operates.
“We very quickly realised this was going to be the most complex thing PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has rejected calls to sack his controversial adviser Dominic Cummings as he again insisted there will be no delay to Brexit beyond October 31.
Mr Johnson spoke out yesterday after former Tory leader Sir John Major unleashed a scathing attack on the PM’s aide, branding him “a political anarchist”.
In a speech in Glasgow on Thursday night, Sir John urged the new Prime Minister to get rid of the “overmighty” Mr Cummings “and do it quickly”.
Asked if he would now sack his key adviser, Mr Johnson said: “Look, advisers advise and ministers decide.”
The PM was speaking during a visit to Aberdeenshire.
Mr Johnson withdrew the whip from 21 Tory MPs who rebelled against his Government in the Commons before failing to win enough votes in the House to force an early general election.
But he insisted he was not prepared to delay Britain’s departure from the European Union beyond the end of next month.
A cross-party bid to require the PM to ask for a Brexit extension if there is not a deal in place cleared the Commons on Wednesday and is due to complete its progress through the Lords on Friday.
Asked if he would not seek the extension, even if passed in law, he said: “I don’t want a delay.”
Mr Johnson told reporters: “The Bill that is still before Parliament would, in theory, mean that the Government of the UK was obliged to write a letter to Brussels asking for a pointless delay to leaving the EU.
“I don’t think that’s what people want and I think we were very clear about that and not only would it oblige the Government to do that, it would give the EU the power to decide how long the UK had to stay in and I really can’t think for the life of me that that is a democratic way forward.
“The big picture is we’ve spent a long time trying to sort of fudge this thing and I think the British public really want us to get out. They don’t want more dither and delay.”
Mr Johnson added: “We can get out of the EU on October 31 and that’s what we intend to do.”
He said he was “perplexed” by Labour and the SNP voting against his bid to force an early general election.
“I’ve never known an opposition in the history of democracy that’s refused to have an election but that’s their choice,” he said.
“I think obviously they don’t trust the people, they don’t think that the people will vote for them so they’re refusing to have an election.”
Asked on whether he would resign, Mr Johnson said: “What I said is that we had to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn, that’s what we’re going to do.”