Boris slams Brexit rebels as EU ‘collaborators’

Boris Johnson was accused yesterday of jeopardising MPs’ safety after he claimed they were “collaborating” with Brussels.

Boris Johnson tours the men’s prison in Leeds yesterday. He said it would be the EU and MPs who would be responsible if Britain left without a deal. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused yesterday of jeopardising MPs’ safety after he claimed they were “collaborating” with Brussels to prevent Britain’s departure from the EU.

Mr Johnson used a Facebook question-and-answer session to say parliament was making it harder for him to secure a good Brexit deal.

His comments came as the most senior Democrat in the US warned that Britain had no chance of securing a post-Brexit trade agreement with the US if its departure jeopardised the Good Friday agreement.

Mr Johnson said it was a “terrible kind of collaboration” and the longer it continued, the more likely it was that “we will be forced to leave with a no-deal Brexit”.

Tory MP Guto Bebb called the remarks “absolutely disgraceful"and said it could lead to an ­increase in threats against MPs.

“I knew Jo Cox. Boris Johnson should reflect very carefully on the fact he is using language about us collaborating with the EU when he knows full well of the threats people are facing,” he said. Former Labour MP Cox was murdered in West Yorkshire a week before the EU referendum.

Yesterday, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said he had received death threats after telling an audience at the ­Edinburgh fringe he would fight to stop the government from suspending parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit without consent.

During Mr Johnson’s “the People’s PMQs” broadcast on his Facebook page, he said it would be the EU and MPs who would be responsible if Britain left without a deal. “There’s a terrible kind of collaboration between people who think they can block Brexit in parliament and our European friends,” he said. “And our European friends are not moving in their willingness to compromise” because “they still think Brexit can be blocked in parliament”.

He added: “The awful thing is the longer that goes on, the more likely we will be forced to leave with no deal.”

Senior Brussels figures said Mr Johnson was misrepresenting the EU position and his own red lines were responsible for the blockage. “We are not waiting for MPs,” one EU diplomat said. “We have ­accepted that the UK is leaving the EU and negotiated with the government in good faith.”

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Philip Hammond yesterday of obstructing no-deal preparations as chancellor by withholding money to upgrade IT for enhanced Customs declarations after Brexit. Mr Hammond wrote in The Times on Wednesday that Mr Johnson’s government had no mandate for a no-deal Brexit. Mr Wallace said the plans were now being funded.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Democrats would block the deal in congress if Britain’s departure from the EU undermined the peace accord in Northern Ireland.

Ms Pelosi, whose party controls the house, was reaffirming her commitment after US national Security Adviser John Bolton said during a visit to London that Britain would be “first in line” for a deal.

Border controls may be imposed on the island of Ireland in the event of no deal, which is seen as a threat to the Belfast agreement that ended decades of bloodshed. The chances of Britain’s departure without a deal have been seen as increasingly likely after Mr Johnson made his “do or die” pledge to leave by the October 31 deadline.

The US is one of the guarantors of the Good Friday agreement. Ms Pelosi said: “Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

“If Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the congress.

If a deal is to be approved in the US, it must pass both chambers of the congress: the house and the Senate. The Senate is controlled by Republicans supportive of Don­ald Trump but Ms Pelosi’s party has a firm grip on the House.

Mr Bolton said the transatlantic trade deal could be brokered on a “gradual sector-by-sector basis”.

His words prompted Mr Johnson to say he expected that negotiating the agreement would be a “tough old haggle” but he remained confident that Britain “will get there”.

The Times