PM Boris Johnson’s hardline “I’d rather be dead in a ditch,” and “no ifs or buts” message on delivering Brexit by October 31 –deadline day– looks now to have been hollow words, after the EU granted the UK a three-month extension.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk confirmed on Monday via social media that the EU27 leaders had agreed a new Brexit deadline, January 31. It’s a highly significant move that takes no-deal off the table and consigns Johnson’s October 31 Brexit date to the dustbin.
Also on rt.com Johnson says he’d rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than ask EU for Brexit delayJohnson has been relentless since the summer that no government that he leads would still be stuck in the EU post October 31. As early as June, during his Tory leadership campaign, he was resolute in his determination to deliver Brexit on time.
We are getting ready to come out on October 31. Come what may. Do or die.
In a public address outside 10 Downing street in September, he was adamant that he would not ask Brussels for any further delays, insisting that the UK would be leaving the bloc on time, “no ifs or buts.” A few days later, in a speech during a visit to a police training center in West Yorkshire, the UK prime minister claimed that he would rather “be dead in a ditch” than ask for a delay.
Eyebrow-raising rhetoric, indeed, and it that has ostensibly rebounded in the form of brutal mockery on social media, including from high-profile figures such as Guy Verhofstadt , the EU’s Brexit Coordinator.
Verhofstadt took to Twitter shortly after Tusk’s announcement on a renewed Brexit delay to take a pop at Johnson’s past comments, tweeting: “Relieved that, finally, no one died in a ditch.” Others also made fun of Johnson’s somewhat overly dramatic rhetoric, saying: “Life’s a ditch and then you die in it.”
There’s also been a deluge of GIFs focusing on the prime minister’s equally far-fetched “do or die” pledge over what he’d seen as a repulsive option of another extension.
Responding to the EU’s three-month Brexit ‘flextension’, Johnson’s spokesman insisted that the prime minister’s “view has not changed, Parliament should not have put the UK in this position and we should be leaving on October 31.”
The so-called ‘flextension’ would mean that Britain could leave the bloc before the renewed deadline day if, in the meantime, a deal is ratified by the UK parliament. The measure comes as UK lawmakers prepare to vote later on Monday on PM Boris Johnson’s proposals for a snap general election on December 12.
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