Showdown ahead as Johnson seeks a redo on Brexit deal
LONDON — On his first full day in office, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the European Union on Thursday to rethink its refusal to renegotiate the Brexit deal, setting himself on a twintrack collision course — with the bloc and his own lawmakers — over his vow to leave the EU by Oct. 31.
Johnson pledged to deliver Brexit and a “broader and bolder future,” as he addressed a rowdy session of Parliament.
He was heckled loudly by an opposition determined to thwart him, with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissing Johnson's “armwaving bluster.” The EU's Brexit chief called Johnson's speech “combative” and his demands unacceptable.
Johnson, who took office on Wednesday after winning a Conservative Party leadership contest, has less than 100 days to make good on his promise to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31. And Thursday's session of Parliament was the last before a six-week summer break.
Rejecting the Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May, Johnson insisted that while he wanted a deal, it could only happen if the EU budged, especially on an insurance policy for the Irish border that has been rejected by U.K. lawmakers.
“I hope that the EU will be equally ready and that they will rethink their current refusal to make any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement,” he told Parliament during the 2½-hour session. “If they do not, we will, of course, have to leave — the U.K. — without an agreement.”
Johnson later spoke by phone to European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker, who once again repeated the bloc's insistence that it will not renegotiate the agreement on departure terms that it struck with May.
Juncker told Johnson that “the withdrawal agreement is the best and only agreement possible” but the EU was ready “to analyze any ideas put forward by the United Kingdom, providing they are compatible with the withdrawal agreement.”
The exchange was disclosed by an EU official who asked not to be identified because of the confidentiality of the phone call.
Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Johnson's “rather combative” speech was part of the British leader's attempt “to heap pressure on the unity” of the bloc.
In a message to the 27 remaining member states, he said the EU must “be ready for all scenarios.”
Without a divorce deal, Britain faces a chaotic Brexit that economists warn would disrupt trade by imposing tariffs and customs checks between Britain and the bloc. They say that could send the value of the pound plummeting and plunge the U.K. into recession.
Nonetheless Johnson has vowed to complete Brexit and silence “the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters” who believe it can't be done.
But details remain scarce about how Johnson's government would alleviate the economic shock if Britain crashed out of the EU's huge free- trading bloc, ripping up decades of agreements regulating everything from aviation to drugs to telecommunications.
He said he was ready to talk to EU leaders “whenever they are ready to do so,” and also promised to “turbo-charge” planning for a no-deal exit, with millions more allocated to a public information campaign for citizens and businesses.
He also repeated his threat to withhold the exit payment of 39 billion pounds ($49 billion) that May agreed to if there is no deal.
Lawmakers who oppose a no-deal Brexit — including some of the Conservative ministers in May's government who were swept away by Johnson — are vowing to put up a fight when Parliament returns from its break in September.
“This House will stop the prime minister,” said Scottish National Party lawmaker Ian Blackford, who branded a no- deal Brexit “economic madness.”
It's almost certain that opposition lawmakers will try to topple Johnson's government in a vote of noconfidence in September. There also is rising speculation that Johnson could call an early fall election in hopes of gaining a majority in Parliament for his plans.