PM refuses to ditch ‘surrender’ term

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has refused to stop calling a law blocking a no-deal Brexit the “surrender act”.

The Conservative Party leader said it was “impoverishing political debate” if such descriptions could not be used.

The so-called Benn Law demands the PM requests an extension to the divorce negotiations if a Brexit deal has not been secured by October 19.

Mr Johnson has regularly dubbed the legislation – drafted and voted through against the Government’s will – as the “surrender act”.

He has faced calls from the Opposition and from more than 100 bishops to tone down his language following death threats issued to MPs this week.

Labour MP Paula Sherriff confronted the PM in the Commons on Wednesday, telling him online abusers used identical terms to Mr Johnson, including talking about “surrender act, betrayal, traitor”.

But speaking during a hospital visit in Essex, Mr Johnson said: “I think the threats against MPs, and particularly female MPs, are absolutely appalling and we’re doing a lot of work to give MPs the security that they need.

“But then there’s another question which is – can you use words like ‘surrender’ to describe a certain act or a certain bill?

“And quite frankly I think that you can, and if you say that you can’t, then you’re kind of impoverishing the language and impoverishing political debate because after all, the use of that kind of metaphor has been going on for hundreds of years.”