JOHNSON LIKENS HIMSELF TO THE HULK
Hulk always escapes, no matter how tightly bound in he seems to be, says British PM
PRIME Minister Boris Johnson likened himself to the unruly comic book character The Incredible Hulk on Saturday in a newspaper interview, where he stressed his determination to take Britain out of the European Union on Oct 31.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that Johnson said he would find a way to circumvent a
recent Parliament vote ordering him to delay Brexit rather than take Britain out of the EU without a transition deal to ease the economic shock.
“The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets. Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be — and that is the case for this country. We will come out on Oct 31,” Johnson was quoted as saying.
Britain’s Parliament has repeatedly rejected the exit deal Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May negotiated with the EU, and this month rejected leaving without a deal — angering many Britons who voted to leave the bloc more than three years ago.
Johnson has said he wants to negotiate a new deal that does not involve a “backstop”, which would tie Britain against its will to EU rules after it leaves to avoid checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The EU has so far insisted on the backstop, and Britain has not presented any alternative.
Nonetheless, Johnson said, he was “very confident” ahead of a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker today.
“There’s a very, very good conversation going on about how to address the issues of the Northern Irish border. A huge amount of progress is being made,” Johnson told the Mail on Sunday.
Johnson drew parallels between Britain’s situation in Brexit talks and the frustrations felt by fictional scientist Bruce Banner, who when enraged, turned into The Incredible Hulk, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
“Banner might be bound in manacles, but when provoked, he would explode out of them,” he said.
Opinion polls on Saturday painted a conflicting picture of the Conservative Party’s political fortunes under Johnson.
A poll conducted by Opinium for the Observer newspaper showed Conservative support rose to 37 per cent from 35 per cent over the past week, while Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour held at 25 per cent, and Liberal Democrat support dropped to 16 per cent from 17 per cent. Support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party remained at 13 per cent.
However, a poll by ComRes for the Sunday Express put Conservative support at just 28 per cent, down from 30 per cent, and only a shade ahead of Labour at 27 per cent. ComRes said just 12 per cent of the more than 2,000 people it survey thought Parliament could be trusted to do the right thing for the country.