Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that he would only take Britain out of the European Union (EU) without a deal as a “last resort”, launching his campaign to be Prime Minister with a promise to unify a country deeply divided over Brexit.
Mr. Johnson is the favourite among the 10 candidates vying to succeed Theresa May. At a launch event in London packed with senior members of the ruling Conservative party, Mr. Johnson insisted that Brexit must happen on October 31.
He said Britain must prepare to leave with no new arrangements if need be, but softened his previous rhetoric, suggesting that this was “a last resort, not something that anybody desires”.
However, Mr. Johnson offered no details of how to break the deadlock in Parliament that prevented Ms. May from getting her deal through. He said a new government with “new optimism” and “total conviction about the way forward” could find a way.
The EU has insisted repeatedly that it will not renegotiate the terms of the divorce, while Parliament has voted against leaving without an accord. On Wednesday, a cross-party group of lawmakers made a fresh bid to block such a scenario.
Hammond’s warning
Finance Minister Philip Hammond warned Mr. Johnson and other leadership rivals not to make promises on Brexit they could not keep.
In his speech, Mr. Johnson skipped over an underwhelming two-year stint as Foreign Secretary and instead drew on his eight years as Mayor of London, which he said gave him the experience to govern.
Conservative lawmakers will hold the first of a series of secret ballots on Thursday on the leadership candidates. They will whittle down the field to two by June 20, and that pair will then be put to a ballot of around 1,60,000 Conservative Party members.