BORIS Johnson has defended his language after he described an MP’s call for him to tone down his words amid fears it was fuelling threats against his opponents as “humbug”.
The Prime Minister said he was “sorry for the misunderstanding” in his response to Labour’s Paula Sheriff (below) who cited Jo Cox and death threats in her call for him to temper his words.
He said: “I think what most people in this country would agree is that Brexit discussion has been going on for far too long and it is true that tempers on both sides have now become inflamed.”
But he said that “we haven’t got a prayer of uniting the country until we get Brexit over the line”.
Describing his Commons exchange with Sheriff on Wednesday night, he told the BBC yesterday: “My use of the word ‘humbug’ was in the context of people trying to prevent me, us, from using the word ‘surrender’.”
The BBC interviewer Andrew Marr said Sheriff, who claimed people quoted the Prime Minister’s words in death threats to MPs, was talking about something “very specific”. Johnson said: “In that case, that was a total misunderstanding and that was wrong.”
But he refused to apologise for describing the Benn Act, which requires him to seek a Brexit extension if a deal is not agreed by 19 October, as ‘the Surrender Act.
He added: “I can certainly say sorry for the misunderstanding, but my intention was to refuse to be crowded out from using the word ‘surrender’ to describe the Surrender Act.”
As the Conservative Party conference began in Manchester, Johnson set out plans for 40 new hospitals as the Tories prepare to make the NHS a key battleground in the next General Election. He also hit out at the “novel and peculiar” decision by the Supreme Court to rule that his suspension of Parliament was unlawful.
During the appearance Johnson added resolving the Brexit crisis would be the best thing for “people’s overall psychological health, insisted he had “no interest to declare” in response to the storm over his links to American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri while he was mayor of London, and suggested an EU nation could veto a new Brexit extension.
READ MORE: Opposition MPs demand Boris Johnson resigns after court ruling
Despite the Benn Act he claimed that “of course we can” leave the EU without a deal on October 31.
He refused to set out how he would do that but did not rule out asking another EU leader to veto a request for a delay.
“I’m not going to get into my discussions with any other EU head of state about the negotiations, because they are extremely interesting but they are also delicate,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
But he added: “It is certainly true that other EU countries also don’t want this thing to keep dragging on. They don’t want the UK to remain in the EU, truculent and mutinous and in a limbo, and not wishing to co-operate in the way that they would like. They want a good deal and there’s the opportunity now to get a good deal. What I would like is for the Government to be able to get on and do that deal, and we are working very hard. I’m not going to pretend to you that it’s going to be easy.”
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Johnson said spending on the NHS was “absolutely central” to his vision of a “united society and a united country”. Under the plans drawn up by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, he said they would be spending £13 billion on what officials described as “new” hospitals, either with entirely new buildings or gutting existing structures to create state-of-the-art facilities.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson defends 'surrender' rhetoric
Commenting on Johnson’s interview, in which he also described himself as “a model of restraint” the SNP’s Stephen Gethins said: “After his week of shame, people were entitled to expect some contrition from the Prime Minister – but he has clearly learned nothing from the last seven days.
“Despite an unprecedented Supreme Court ruling that he had acted unlawfully, despite the near universal condemnation of his inflammatory and deeply irresponsible language, and despite mounting questions surrounding his conduct as mayor of London, Boris Johnson arrogantly believes that all of his difficulties are everyone else’s fault. There can be no doubt that Boris Johnson is inflaming tensions rather than calming them – and people would have been absolutely gobsmacked to hear him describe himself as a ‘model of restraint’.”
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