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UK's Boris Johnson says would rather die than delay Brexit
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than delay Brexit beyond next month, as he urged opposition lawmakers who oppose his plan to support an early election.
By
migrator
migrator
London
MPs in the House of Commons this week passed a bill that could stop Johnson taking Britain out of the European Union without a divorce deal with Brussels.
But they also rejected his call for a snap election to resolve the political deadlock that has characterised the past three years since the 2016 referendum vote for Brexit.
In a speech in northern England, Johnson said "I'd rather be dead in a ditch" than ask the EU for a Brexit delay.
"We must come out of the EU on October 31," the Conservative leader said, just hours after suffering a fresh blow with the resignation of his brother from government.
The speech, at a police academy in the city of Wakefield, was marred at the end by the apparent collapse of a police cadet standing behind him.
The event was intended to be the first step of an election campaign, before MPs rejected the poll in a vote on Wednesday night.
The vote left Johnson in limbo, his Brexit plan in tatters but with no way out after his parliamentary majority was destroyed by a Conservative party rebellion over the issue.
As a result, his government announced it would try again to force an election with a House of Commons vote on Monday, and he challenged the opposition Labour party to back it.
He expressed regret about his brother Jo's resignation as a junior universities minister a few hours earlier, which only reinforced the sense of a government in crisis.Â
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