Boris Johnson accused of stoking hatred against rival MPs

Boris refuses to back down over accusations his inflammatory language endangered MPs.

Boris Johnson is accused of using inflammatory language during a toxic sitting of the House of Commons. Picture: AFP.

Boris Johnson has refused to back down over accusations he is stoking hatred against MPs and endangering their lives with inflammatory language over Brexit.

Amid furious confrontations between his frontbench and Labour MPs on Thursday, Mr Johnson repeatedly used the words “surrender” and “betrayal”, despite being reminded of the murder of a Labour MP in 2016 in a similarly toxic atmosphere.

The accusations against Mr Johnson came to a head when Labour politician Jess Phillips, a friend of the murdered MP Jo Cox, confronted Mr Johnson in the voting lobbies, demanding he apologise to her family as she angrily jabbing her finger at him.

Ms Phillips revealed that police had removed a man “smacking” her parliamentary office window screaming”fascist” at her staff.

She added: “What he (Mr Johnson) is doing is manipulative, purposeful, it is his strategy.’’

Ms Phillips had asked Mr Johnson to tone down his language in the Commons, reminding him Ms Cox had been murdered a week before the Brexit referendum as the debate over Brexit became more incendiary. Mr Johnson told her she was speaking “humbug.”

Another Labour MP, Karl Turner, was filmed approaching senior No 10 advisor Dominic Cummings and telling him: “I’ve had death threats overnight; ‘should be dead’.”

Mr Cummings dismissed his complaint, responding: “Get Brexit done’’.

Ellie Cooper, the daughter of the Labour MP Yvette Cooper and her husband Ed Balls, tweeted that since Ms Cox’s death she was scared “every day” that her mother would be killed.

“The language used by our prime minister — not a far-right populist or provocative journalist, but our prime minister — is just beyond words,” she tweeted.

Because I’m terrified if we don’t that something awful is going to happen again. At this rate, that seems like the only thing that could stop us in our tracks. We need to change the way we act towards our MPs before it goes too far because if not I have no doubt it will.

— Ellie Cooper (@ellieelizaa) September 26, 2019

Mr Johnson also faced scathing criticism over his language from his own sister, Rachel Johnson.

Ms Johnson, who unsuccessfully stood for the Change UK party in the European elections this year told the BBC: “It’s not the brother I see at home. It’s a different person.” She attacked his reference to Ms Cox’s murder, saying it was a tasteless way to refer to the memory of a murdered MP.

However Mr Johnson refused to rein in his language, accusing Labour MPS of using “much harsher language” against him.

He told a meeting of his backbenchers on Thursday that he wouldn’t tone down his language because the message was getting through to the electorate that the parliament was hostile to having any form of Brexit.

Mr Johnson said: ‘They [Labour] are trying to drive us off the word ‘surrender’ because they know it is cutting through”.

During Thursday’s sitting - described as “toxic” by Speaker John Bercow - MPs punished Mr Johnson by refusing to allow a recess for the Conservative party conference.

A vote for a short three-day recess to allow Conservative MPs to attend their annual conference in Manchester next week was rejected on Thursday. Tory MPs will now juggle attending the conference and keep a close eye on Westminster - two and a half hours away by train - in case parliament tries to call a sudden vote.

The vote result was at odds with the convention to allow each party time to hold their conferences: Labour and the Liberal Democrats have already held theirs.

The Prime Minister is now considering proroguing parliament for a short period - much less than the five weeks he attempted before which was overturned on Monday by a unanimous Supreme Court ruling.

Mr Johnson told BBC regional editors: “Tempers need to come down, and people need to come together because it’s only by getting Brexit done that you’ll lance the boil, as it were, of the current anxiety and we will be able to get on with the domestic agenda.’’

Mr Cummings also defended the PM, saying the pubic was angry about politicians not following through on their promises. In comments that are likely to fuel further fury from Labour backbenchers, he said: “The MPs said we will have a referendum, we will respect the result and then they spent three years swerving all over the shop.

”It is not surprising some people are angry about it. I find it very odd that these characters are complaining that people are unhappy about their behaviour now and they also say they want a referendum. How does that compute for them?

“To me, it says that, fundamentally, a lot of people in parliament are more out of touch with the country now than they were in summer 2016.

“If you are a bunch of politicians and say that we swear we are going to respect the result of a democratic vote, and then after you lose you say, we don’t want to respect that vote, what do you expect to happen?’’