The prime
minister dismissed fears that his use of language such as ‘traitor’ and
’betrayal’ was dangerous in a heightened political climate. Female MPs,
including Paula Sherriff, attacked Johnson for repeatedly referring to the act
put through parliament to take no-deal Brexit off the table as the ‘surrender
bill’. Johnson replied that he had never heard such ‘humbug’ in all his life
No
apologies: MPs' fury as Boris Johnson goes on the attack
PM rejects
pleas to moderate his ‘inflammatory’ language after supreme court defeat
Heather
Stewart and Kate Proctor
Wed 25 Sep
2019 21.04 BSTLast modified on Thu 26 Sep 2019 01.24 BST
An
unrepentant Boris Johnson has sparked a furious backlash after he repeated his
criticism of the supreme court judgment, and rejected MPs’ pleas to moderate
his “inflammatory” language as “humbug”.
Addressing
a rowdy and adversarial House of Commons, just hours after flying back early
from New York, Johnson went on the attack, accusing Jeremy Corbyn of trying to
thwart Brexit and running scared of an election.
Johnson
infuriated opposition MPs by dismissing fears that his use of language such as
“surrender” and “betrayal” was dangerous in a heightened political climate. To
gasps, he claimed the best way to honour the memory of the murdered MP Jo Cox
was to “get Brexit done”.
And he
continued to deploy the “people versus parliament” rhetoric that has become a
signature of his premiership, claiming: “The people outside this house
understand what is happening … The leader of the opposition and his party don’t
trust the people.”
And he
added: “Instead of facing the voters the opposition turned tail and fled from
an election. Instead of deciding to let the voters decide, they ran for the
courts … it is absolutely no disrespect to the judiciary to say I think the
court was wrong.”
Johnson’s
appearance led critics to accuse him of failing to show any humility over his
supreme court defeat.
Responding
to the prime minister, Corbyn accused him of failing to take the supreme court
defeat seriously, calling his statement, “10 minutes of bluster from a
dangerous prime minister who thinks he is above the law but in truth is not fit
for the office he holds”.
Labour’s
Jess Phillips said: “I know that the prime minister wants to appear as a strong
man. But the strongest thing he could do that would look the best to this
country at the moment would be to act with some humility and contrition.”
Other
female MPs, including Paula Sherriff, attacked the prime minister for
repeatedly calling the act put through parliament by Hilary Benn to take
no-deal Brexit off the table the “surrender bill”.
She said:
“The prime minister has continually used pejorative language to describe an act
of parliament passed by this house. We should not resort to using offensive,
dangerous, inflammatory language for legislation we do not like.”
Recalling
the memory of her friend Cox, she said many MPs had received death threats.
“And let me
tell the prime minister – they often quote his words, ‘surrender act’,
‘betrayal,’ ‘traitor’: we must moderate our language and it has to come from
the prime minister first.”
Johnson
replied that he had never heard such “humbug” in all his life. He caused
further outrage when telling Labour’s Tracy Brabin, who was elected to Cox’s
seat following the MP’s murder by a far-right extremist a week before the EU
referendum, that “the best way to honour the memory of Jo Cox and to bring this
country together is, I think, to get Brexit done”.
Cox
campaigned for remain. Her widower, Brendan, later wrote on Twitter: “Feel a
bit sick at Jo’s name being used in this way. The best way to honour Jo is for
all of us (no matter our views) to stand up for what we believe in,
passionately and with determination. But never to demonise the other side and
always hold onto what we have in common.”
The leader
of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, later suggested all MPs, “have a
responsibility to be mild in our language when we’re speaking in this house or
outside”.
The
exchanges capped a day of dramatic and bad-tempered House of Commons business
over Brexit, the likelihood of an election, and the prime minister’s calamitous
defeat in the supreme court.
But after
scrambling to return early from the UN general assembly’s meeting in the US,
Johnson offered little indication of how the government now intends to proceed,
instead challenging Labour or any other opposition party to table a motion of
no confidence, and promising to set aside parliamentary time on Thursday for
MPs to vote on it.
Labour, the
SNP and the Liberal Democrats have all insisted they will not seek to bring
down the government and trigger a general election until a delay to Brexit is
secured. But Downing Street suggested that if Labour fails to table a vote of
no confidence it will effectively indicate support for Johnson’s strategy.
After
Tuesday’s damning judgment, Corbyn said that Johnson “should have done the
honourable thing and resigned. Yet here he is, forced back to this house to
rightfully face scrutiny, without a shred of remorse or humility and no
substance whatsoever.”
He added:
“He says he wants an election. I want an election. If he wants an election,
it’s very simple. Get an extension and we’ll have an election.”
Labour MP
Gloria de Piero of the cross-party MPs for a deal group called for a
compromise, urging the prime minister to publish the potential areas of
agreement identified in cross-party talks earlier this year.
Johnson
responded sympathetically and said he would try to produce something in the
coming days. He is likely to need the support of Labour MPs to have any chance
of passing a Brexit deal in time for the 31 October deadline.
Despite the
supreme court verdict, the Conservatives intend to press ahead with their party
conference in Manchester next week. They have tabled a motion, which will be
voted on Thursday morning, asking MPs to support shutting down parliament for
three days next week to accommodate it.
A
government source said: “I cannot guarantee that there won’t be an impact on
the economy of Manchester. The Labour party if they are doing this – it will be
a nakedly political act.”
Manchester
Central MP Lucy Powell had earlier warned that the cost to the city’s economy
if the conference was cancelled could be up to £30m.
Labour
sources said they had proposed a compromise plan to the Conservatives of
debating legislation on which both sides are in agreement next week, including
the domestic abuse bill, allowing many Tory MPs to attend the conference.
The
domestic abuse bill was dropped as a result of prorogation, along with several
others. Labour initially believed the plan had been agreed but it was later
rejected.
The Lib
Dems have already said they will not support parliament being shut down again.
A party source said, “after Boris Johnson unlawfully suspended parliament to
stop us scrutinising, the last thing we’re going to do is give them a three-day
Tory jamboree”.
After
Corbyn’s stinging critique, Johnson hit back with an extended political attack
on the leader of the opposition, accusing him of running scared – to which many
Conservative MPs responded with rowdy cheers and an extended round of applause.
“Why won’t
they allow him to unleash his charms on the electorate? Is it because they are
not only terrified that he is going to lose but also even more terrified of the
remote possibility that he might win.”
“He can’t
control his own party. He can’t decide whether he is for leave or for remain.
He’s being held captive by his colleagues,” he said.
Johnson was
the fourth minister to address parliament on Wednesday, as MPs took the
opportunity to press the government on a series of other issues, including the
collapse of travel company Thomas Cook and the situation in Iran.
Earlier,
the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, who advised the government that an extended
suspension of parliament would be lawful according to advice leaked on
Wednesday, launched an extraordinary attack on MPs.
“This
parliament is a dead parliament,” he said. “It should no longer sit. It has no
moral right to sit on these green benches.”
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