Tory leadership debate: Boris Johnson brandishes kipper on stage as he declares May's Brexit deal ‘defunct' at final hustings
The final Conservative Party leadership hustings with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, as it happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Tory leadership contenders Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt both stood by their stated approaches to handling Brexit at the final hustings before the polls close for Conservative members to vote for their party’s new leader and the country’s next prime minister.
Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to rule out suspending Parliament as PM to force through Brexit and said the UK would leave the European Union by 31 October with or without a deal.
Mr Hunt meanwhile said he could delay Brexit beyond that point if a deal was in reach, but he has also not ruled out walking away from negotiations without an agreement.
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He's even tried speaking Spanish, during a comparison of our Iberian neighbours' apparently blistering internet speeds compared to our own.
And the spectre of Mr Corbyn rises over the Excel centre once again. The Labour leader's "economic programme would be catastrophic for this country", Mr Johnson claims.
"We need to get our mojo back as a party," says Mr Johnson. Now he is holding up a vacuum-packed fish. A kipper, apparently.
It came, he says, from a kipper-smoker who has been forced to include ice-packs with his shipments. The move by the old enemy - "Brussels bureaucrats" - has sent his costs soaring, Mr Johnson says.
Mr Johnson, in keeping with recent custom, has spoken a great deal about his time as the mayor of London but not at all about his time as foreign secretary.
Mr Johnson will not say when he would introduce a Queen's speech. "Our priority is to get Brexit done on 31 October", he says.
On the prospect of proroguing parliament, Mr Johnson says he believes MPs are now "psychologically ready" to deliver Brexit.
The Tories in particular are "staring down the barrel", he says.
Mr Dale brings up Michel Barnier's statements that the withdrawal agreement cannot be re-negotiated.
Mr Johnson constructs an answer around a different part of the preamble to the operative point, when Mr Dale mentioned plans for a European army.
Pressed further on the willingness of Brussels to budge on the negotiations, Mr Johnson cites the readiness of European governments to expel Russian spies from their countries in the wake of the Salisbury poisonings.
And if Mr Barnier will not compromise, "we have to get ready to come out on different terms".
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