EU Commission president slams Boris Johnson, December election called amid Brexit chaos
The European Commission president has ripped into Boris Johnson, accusing him and others of spreading lies during the Brexit campaign.
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The European Commission president slammed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, accusing him of spreading “lies” during the Brexit campaign.
In a speech on Thursday at the European Policy Centre, Jean-Claude Juncker said he “should have intervened” in the 2016 campaign to call out “bulls--t” spread by “Boris Johnson and others”.
It comes as Mr Johnson said he plans to ask parliament to approve an early national election to be held on December 12, calling it the only way to break Britain’s Brexit impasse.
Mr Johnson said he would ask politicians to vote on Monday on a motion calling for an early election, calling it “the only way forward” after parliament has been “going on for a long time without a majority.”
“They were saying things, some of them – lying. Telling the people things which have nothing to do with our day by day reality,” Mr Juncker said.
“David Cameron (the UK Prime Minister at the time) asked me not to intervene in the referendum campaign because he said the European Commission is even less popular on the islands than on the continent ... That was a major mistake: I should have intervened, because nobody was denying, contesting the lies Boris Johnson and others were spreading around.”
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He also rejected accusations that it was the EU’s fault that the campaign had failed and instead took aim at the British press.
“If for 46 years you are told day after day, and you are reading in your papers, that the place of the British is not really in Europe, but that they are there for economic and internal market reasons, and all the rest – it’s nonsense, bulls***, as they are saying in the European parliament – don’t be surprised if voters are asked to give their impression, some of them, a small majority but nevertheless a clear majority, is voting like a majority of the British sovereign people is voting,” he said.
BORIS JOHNSON CALLS FOR SNAP ELECTION
“The way to get Brexit done is to, I think, be reasonable with parliament … if they genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal they can have it but they have to agree to a general election on December 12,” Mr Johnson told the BBC.
“It is time, frankly, that the opposition summon up the nerve to submit themselves to the judgment of our collective boss, which is the people of the UK.”
Mr Johnson has called a vote in parliament for Monday to decide whether to hold a snap election. This is the third time Mr Johnson has tried to secure an early election since taking office.
Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says it has not decided whether to support Mr Johnson’s call for a snap general election.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says he will wait and see whether the EU agrees to delay Britain’s scheduled October 31 departure from the bloc. He said “if the EU will answer tomorrow then we’ll know tomorrow”.
Without Labour’s supporting votes, Johnson will not get the two-thirds majority he needs to call an early election.
And both the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party have said they will only support an election once a no-deal Brexit has been taken off the table.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon slammed the move saying the British PM was dangling an election to get his “own way.”
“So Johnson appears to be saying to MPs ‘if you vote for an election, I’ll bring back my bad Brexit bill and try to drag us out of the EU before we go to the polls’,” Ms Sturgeon tweeted.
“Elections should be exercises in letting voters decide, not devices for charlatans to get their own way.”
What makes sense now is to discuss the Withdrawal Bill in a 3 month extension period, have the various votes and make the decisions. To have a General Election now is not in the national interest.
— Ian Lucas MP (@IanCLucas) October 24, 2019
So Johnson appears to be saying to MPs ‘if you vote for an election, I’ll bring back my bad Brexit bill and try to drag us out of the EU before we go to the polls’. Elections should be exercises in letting voters decide, not devices for charlatans to get their own way.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 24, 2019
The British PM has been mulling his next move since Tuesday, when politicians blocked his attempt to fast-track an EU divorce bill through parliament in a matter of days. Politicians said they needed more time to scrutinise the legislation, making it all but impossible for Britain to leave the EU on the scheduled date of October 31 with a deal.
It comes as Mr Johnson is being haunted by his Halloween Brexit deadline as European leaders say they will push out Britain’s plans to leave.
The European Union has given a strong indication that the October 31 deadline was dead in a ditch, despite Mr Johnson’s best efforts.
Mr Johnson spoke with German leader Angela Merkel for 10 minutes but he did not get what he wanted.
His official spokesman said: “(Mr Johnson) made the same point which he made to Donald Tusk, which is that his long-held view is that we shouldn’t delay and that we should leave the EU on 31 October.”
But the EU poured cold water on Mr Johnson’s wishes as they already have a request for a Brexit extension to January 31.
Originally published as EU Commission president slams Boris Johnson, December election called amid Brexit chaos