London - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said
on Wednesday some British lawmakers hoping to block Brexit were
engaged in "terrible" collaboration with the European Union by
undermining London's negotiating hand and so making no deal more
likely.
Hours after senior lawmakers said they would seek to prevent
any attempt to ignore parliament over Brexit, Johnson used a
question-and-answer session on Facebook to attack them.
"There is a terrible kind of collaboration as it were going
on between those who think they can block Brexit in parliament
and our European friends," Johnson, who has been hailed by the
U.S. president as "Britain's Trump", said on Facebook.
"We need our European friends to compromise and the more
they think that there's a chance that Brexit can be blocked in
parliament, the more adamant they are in sticking to their
position," Johnson said.
Johnson's use of the word "collaborator" has historical
echoes for Britons given the use of that epithet for people who
cooperated with Nazi Germany during World War Two.
It followed remarks by former finance minister Philip
Hammond that parliament will block a no-deal Brexit if unelected
people behind Johnson try to wrench Britain out on Oct. 31
without agreement.
The United Kingdom is heading towards a constitutional
crisis at home and a showdown with the EU as Johnson has vowed
to leave the bloc in 78 days time without a deal unless it
agrees to renegotiate a Brexit divorce.
After more than three years of Brexit dominating EU affairs,
the bloc has repeatedly refused to reopen the Withdrawal
Agreement which includes an Irish border insurance policy that
Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, agreed in November.
Hammond, who served as May's finance minister for three
years, said unelected people in Johnson's Downing Street office
were setting London on an "inevitable" course towards a no-deal
Brexit by demanding the Irish backstop be dropped.
"The people behind this know that that means that there will
be no deal," Hammond told the BBC. "Parliament is clearly
opposed to a no-deal exit, and the prime minister must respect
that."
LAWMAKERS' RESOLVE
The former minister's first public intervention since
resigning indicates the determination of a group of influential
lawmakers to thwart Johnson if he goes for a no-deal Brexit.
Hammond said he was confident parliament, where a majority
oppose a no-deal Brexit, would find a way to block that outcome.
It is, however, unclear if lawmakers have the unity or power
to use the 800-year-old heart of British democracy to prevent a
no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 - likely to be the United Kingdom's
most consequential move since World War Two.
Opponents of no deal say it would be a disaster for what was
once one of the West's most stable democracies. A disorderly
divorce, they say, would hurt global growth, send shockwaves
through financial markets and weaken London’s claim to be the
world’s preeminent financial centre.
Brexit supporters say there may be short-term disruption
from a no-deal exit but that the economy will thrive if cut free
from what they cast as a doomed experiment in integration that
has led to Europe falling behind China and the United States.
Heading towards one of the biggest constitutional crises in
at least a century, Britain's elite are quarrelling over how,
when and even if the result of the shock 2016 referendum will be
implemented.
Part of the problem is that Britain's constitution, once
touted as a global model, is uncodified and vague. It relies on
precedent, but there is little for Brexit.
The House of Commons speaker John Bercow told an audience in
Scotland that lawmakers could prevent a no-deal Brexit and that
he would fight any attempt to prorogue, or suspend, parliament
“with every bone in my body”.
Johnson, who replaced May after she failed three times to
get her Brexit deal through parliament, has refused to rule out
proroguing the House of Commons and Brexit supporters have
vociferously encouraged him to do so if necessary.
Johnson's top advisor, Dominic Cummings, has reportedly said
he could delay calling a general election until after Oct. 31,
even if he lost a no confidence motion, allowing for a no-deal
Brexit while parliament is dissolved.
Clearly with him in mind, Hammond said there were people
"who are pulling the strings in Downing Street, those who are
setting the strategy." Cummings declined to comment to Reuters.