Boris Johnson news – live: PM refuses to resign and says he’d rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than seek Brexit delay
All the latest developments as they happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson refused to resign in the wake of his own brother’s decision to quit the government over an “unresolvable tension” between the national interest and family ties. Jo Johnson also announced his intention to stand down at the next election.
After a meandering speech in West Yorkshire, the prime minister was asked if he would follow his younger sibling out of the doors of parliament but said: “My job is to get us out on 31 October and that is what we’re going to do.”
And things went from bad to worse for the prime minister, as one man politely asked him to “please leave my town”, while another heckled him in front of TV cameras in Morley.
It all comes after the PM suffered a crushing double defeat in the Commons as MPs pushed through a bill to block a no-deal Brexit and voted down his plan to hold a snap general election.
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Boris Johnson has told the vice president Mike Pence that the NHS would not be for sale in any post-Brexit trade deal with America and that Britain is “not keen on that chlorinated chicken”.
In a meeting in Downing Street with Pence, the PM said: “The National Health Service is not on the table as far as our negotiations go. We are not keen on that chlorinated chicken.”
I wouldn’t take that too be government policy, though. It was obviously an attempt to set up a joke about Jeremy Corbyn.
In another cheap dig at the Labour leader and his reluctance to agree to a general election, Johnson said: “We have a gigantic chlorinated chicken of our own on the opposition benches.”
Johnson also said he wanted to ensure haggis could be sold freely in the US in any forthcoming free trade deal. He said Americans still do not eat “British lamb or beef or haggis from Scotland”
Johnson added: “We know you guys are pretty tough negotiators but we will make sure that a free trade deal works for all of us.”
Mike Pence and Boris Johnson at No 10 (Getty)
It has been suggested that Boris Johnson could refuse to implement the three-month Brexit extension (which we assume will become law on Monday), and resign as prime minister – asking the Queen to send for someone else.
What happens then?
Jo Swinson asks again whether she would support Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. “I don’t think that Jeremy Corbyn will command a majority in the House of Commons in that circumstance - I do believe that the House of Commons can unite around somebody who can.”
“I do not believe that with Liberal Democrat support [Corbyn becoming PM] is possible … not all the Labour MPs would support it. The Change UK MPs wouldn’t support it. So where’s your majority coming from in this scenario?”
The supreme civil court in Scotland could be poised to release No 10 documents about the prorogation of parliament.
Three judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh will consider ordering unredacted versions of the letters and notes after hearing an appeal about the legality of the suspension.
Sections of the documents, which relate to cabinet meetings and correspondence with the prime minister, had been “blacked out” and submitted at a late stage to a hearing on Tuesday.
It was revealed then that Boris Johnson appeared to have approved the prorogation on August 15 - despite subsequent official denials and the public announcement being made nearly two weeks later.
The judges are considering making the documents available to the media in the “interest of open justice”. This decision will be made after they have had time to see their context.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been branded “absolutely disgusting” for likening a doctor warning of deaths after a no-deal Brexit to a disgraced anti-vaxxer.
Here are all the details.
“There is no good time of year to leave the European Union without a deal.” – Michael Gove, Thursday, 5 September 2019.
I think he’ll be reminded of that one a few times. Gove has been speaking to the Brexit committee, telling them: “In common parlance, scarcity sounds as though we’re living in a world where we can’t get what we need.”
Asked about the possibility of queues of lorries in Dover, Gove said: “I don’t think they are inevitable but they are a material risk.”
Get yourself down to parliament, where Stephen Pound MP is selling his CD collection.
A nice exchange between Brexit commitee chair Hilary Benn and Michael Gove, the minister responsible for no-deal planning.
Benn: “No-one, including your good self, can actually know what’s going to happen after the 1st of November. Would that be a fair assessment?”
Gove: “Well, I think the future is known only to the Almighty.”
Benn: “Well, I’m afraid he’s not a witness before the committee today.”
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