British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the European Union yesterday to rethink its refusal to renegotiate the Brexit deal, setting himself on a collision course with both the bloc and his own lawmakers over his vow to leave the EU by Oct. 31.
Addressing a rowdy session of Parliament for the first time since becoming prime minister a day earlier, Johnson pledged to deliver Brexit and a “broader and bolder future.”
Rejecting the Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May, he 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 said. “If they do not, we will, of course, have to leave — the U.K. — without an agreement.”
The EU repeated, for the umpteenth time, its insistence that it will not renegotiate the agreement on the terms of Britain’s departure that it struck with May.
“The European Union’s position remains unchanged. […] We will not reopen the withdrawal agreement,” said European Commission chief spokeswoman Mina Andreeva.
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, who won an election of Conservative members to replace May as party leader and prime minister, 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.
Johnson has less than 100 days to make good on his promise to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31. Yet Britain will struggle to get the bloc’s full attention during August, a sleepy holiday period in much of Europe, and the U.K. Parliament is due to start a six-week summer break on Friday.
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.
Johnson also held the first meeting of his new Cabinet, which he has filled with loyal Brexit supporters. They include Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Treasury chief Sajid Javid, Home Secretary Priti Patel and House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg. Many of them worked with Johnson in the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the EU, as did much of Johnson’s new backroom staff.
Despite the new lineup, he faces the same problems that bedeviled May: heading a government without a parliamentary majority and with most lawmakers opposed to leaving the EU without a divorce 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.”
Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said “no deal means no steel, no car industry, food prices rising dramatically and huge job losses.”
It’s almost certain that opposition lawmakers will try to topple Johnson’s government in a vote of no-confidence 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. Jill Lawless & Danica Kirka, London, AP
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