BREXIT BLOCKERS
Boris blasts ‘terrible collaboration’ between Remainer MPs and EU to try and stop Brexit
BORIS Johnson has let rip at Philip Hammond today - saying Remainers like him are in a 'terrible collaboration' with the EU to derail Brexit.
In his first 'People's PMQs' session this afternoon he answered questions from the public live on Facebook.
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Boris accused him of working together with the EU to stop Brexit after the former Chancellor accused Mr Johnson of ruining any chance of a new deal with Brussels.
Mr Hammond also declared Parliament can and will stop No Deal by delaying Brexit yet again.
His comments shattered a three-week Tory truce ahead of a titanic showdown over Brexit when the Commons returns in three weeks.
The PM hit back to accuse Mr Hammond and other senior Tory rebels of sabotaging any renegotiation
He said: "There's a terrible kind of collaboration going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends.
"They are still sticking with every letter and comma of the withdrawal agreement because they still think Brexit can be blocked in Parliament."
There's a terrible kind of collaboration going on between people who think they can block Brexit
Boris Johnson
He said that the longer this stalemate goes on, "the more likely it is that we will be forced to leave with a No Deal Brexit" - even though that's not what he wants.
MPs and Brussels bosses should realise Brits now want us to just get on with leaving, he added.
In a 15-minute long address to the nation on Facebook this afternoon he fielded several questions from the public - the first such session for a PM.
An EU diplomat told The Sun: “The EU can’t do a deal if the UK doesn’t want one. If this is about preservation of the Tory party then nothing but No Deal will do.
“Everything else will keep the Brexit Party alive and play straight into the hands of Nigel Farage.”
But a UK source told The Sun: “We prefer a deal and are very willing to talk about what needs to be done to achieve that.”
Boris vowed to restore trust in politics by finally getting us out before the end of October, invest in forgotten towns and cities, and improve education and tackle knife crime.
HAMMOND'S PLOT
Mr Hammond has said this morning that he was "very confident" that Parliament would succeed in its latest attempt to betray millions of Leave voters.
Despite the fact that Boris has only been in No10 for three weeks, Mr Hammond said he was determined to wreck his plan to take us out of the EU no matter what happens.
Boris has staked his entire premiership on vowing to exit the bloc no matter what happens, even if that means with No Deal.
But today Mr Hammond told Radio 4: "I am very confident that the means exist for Parliament to make its voice heard and to pass legislation to give effect to the clear view of Parliament."
And when he was asked whether that means new laws to block No Deal or postpone Brexit Day for a THIRD time, he said: "Yes."
If MPs were to take control of the Parliamentary agenda they could propose their own laws to throw a spanner in Boris' plans.
Or they could tag on amendments to existing legislation brought forward by the Government.
Mr Hammond was seen at the end of last week looking gloomy as he sat with a suitcase and a bag on the London underground - a far cry from the posh ministerial car he had before.
I am very confident that the means exist for Parliament to make its voice heard
Philip Hammond
Mr Hammond, who was Chancellor for three years under Theresa May but quit before Boris Johnson could sack him, added that Speaker John Bercow would be able to help him stop Brexit.
He added: "It's very clear to me, and I think the Speaker of the House of Commons has also been very clear, that if a majority of Members of Parliament want to go down a certain route, a means will be delivered to allow that to happen."
Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith hit back immediately at his gloomy predictions about No Deal, saying he was the one who committed the "crime" of not preparing to leave.
He told the BBC: "By not preparing to leave with No Deal, they made it certain we had to swallow everything the European Union gave us... we were taken to the cleaners by the EU."
The Sun Says
LIKE a particularly unpleasant smell, it appears Philip Hammond is intent on hanging around.
Yes, the human sleeping pill is back, continuing the work that so endeared him to the country during the three years he spent in the Treasury: undermining our negotiations in Brussels, attaching ludicrous conditions to the 2016 Referendum and talking the country down.
A nation yesterday sighed in unison as he mounted another assault on the possibility of Britain leaving the EU with a clean break. Plague and pestilence, imminent recession, everything short of the apocalypse itself. He morphs ever more into a 21st century Grim Reaper with every passing day.
The former Chancellor’s failure to prepare for No Deal in the Treasury is, more than anything else, the very reason that we’re still stuck in Brexit limbo.
Brussels knew that with him holding the country’s financial levers, there was no way we’d be ready to leave with a clean break. So they pushed, and pushed, and pushed Theresa May until she was forced to accept a terrible deal and the hated backstop.
For those who think our judgment harsh, we are confident that history will be even punchier.
And now, with a Government that actually believes Britain can prosper outside the EU, he’s back to blow up another attempt at negotiations.
Brussels will be watching his Eeyore act and calculating that Parliament will be able to stop No Deal. The odious toad of a Speaker John Bercow is sure to help out, as he confirmed yesterday.
The Eurocrats will gamble they don’t need to renegotiate the deal, and British Remainers — like the former Chancellor — will push for the Second Referendum they’ve wanted from the off.
It takes some political skill to sabotage two different Governments in the space of a couple of years, but Hammond seems keen to see if he can manage it. If he’s successful this time, he risks a historic constitutional crisis and Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
The sooner he moves on from public life the better.
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