Johnson turns on charm in Brexit push

PM conducts flurry of meetings, calls on eve of crucial Saturday vote

After defying expectations and winning the backing of European Union leaders for his new Brexit deal, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a crucial challenge Friday.

He was battling to secure enough support to get the deal through the fractious British Parliament and pave the way for Britain — finally — to leave the bloc in two weeks’ time.

Johnson returned from an EU summit in Brussels overnight for a busy day of meetings and phone calls as he attempted to persuade lawmakers to ratify the divorce deal at a rare Saturday sitting of Parliament.

He was to brief his cabinet ahead of what’s expected to be a knife-edge vote.

Johnson’s Conservative Party holds only 288 seats in the 650seat House of Commons, so he will have to rely on support from other parties and independent lawmakers.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab started drumming up support early.

“We’ve got a real opportunity now to get Brexit delivered faithful to the referendum, move on as a government, and I think as a country, and lift the clouds of Brexit,” he told the BBC.

Raab said the government has not given up hope of winning the support of its Northern Ireland ally, the Democratic Unionist Party, which has rejected the new deal.

But the chances of that appeared slim.

The DUP’s Brexit spokesperson, Sammy Wilson, said Johnson’s Brexit package — which carves out special status for Northern Ireland to keep an open border with EU member Ireland — is bad for his region and its bonds with the rest of the U.K.

“I can give you absolute assurance we will not be voting for this deal when it comes before the Commons tomorrow,” he told the BBC.

The deal’s fate could largely rest on a group of 21 Conservative lawmakers expelled from the party’s group in Parliament earlier this year for voting against the government, and on members from the main opposition Labour Party, which has 244 lawmakers.

Nicholas Soames, one of the 21, said he would vote for the deal, and thought most of his expelled colleagues would “by and large vote for it.”

Labour leaders have told party lawmakers to oppose the deal.

But about 20 of them, mainly representing pro-Brexit parts of the country, have previously indicated a desire to back a deal to honour the June 2016 Brexit referendum result. Labour lawmaker John Mann said Friday he thought at least 10 party legislators would support the government’s deal.

While Saturday’s vote will mark a defining moment, the Brexit saga may have more twists in store.

Several lawmakers are trying to disrupt the vote with amendments that radically change it. One even calls for Britain to cancel Brexit altogether.

If Johnson’s charm offensive manages to corral enough votes to pass the deal, Britain would be on course to leave the EU on Oct. 31.