Johnson Sets Out Election Platform in Warning to Rebel Lawmakers
Johnson Sets Out Election Platform in Warning to Rebel Lawmakers
(Bloomberg) --
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged billions of pounds for education, social care and transportation, and warned Conservative lawmakers to get behind his Brexit plan or face losing their party affiliation.
The proposals to be unveiled in the coming week will be the “biggest, most generous spending review” since the Labour Party under Tony Blair came to power in the late 1990s, Johnson said. In an interview with the Sunday Times, he refused to rule out calling a general election.
“We need to put a tiger in the tank, put our pedal to the metal, foot to the floor,” he said. “We’re putting a huge amount into social care, into schools, into transport and education.”
Johnson, in office since late July, outraged some in Parliament this week by declaring a one-month suspension of lawmaking just ahead of the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. Rebel lawmakers will try during the week to pass a law that would force Johnson to seek an extension of the deadline for departing.
The Times said Johnson and his senior aides will discuss on Sunday whether to deny party affiliation to Tory members who join with Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to block a no-deal Brexit.
“Are you going to side with those who want to scrub the democratic verdict of the people -- and plunge this country into chaos?” Johnson said, referring to Corbyn. “Or are you going to side with those of us who want to get on, deliver on the mandate of the people, and focus with absolute, laser-like precision on the domestic agenda? That’s the choice.”
Johnson declined to rule out packing the House of Lords with hundreds of peers to defeat the rebel bill, asking the Queen not to give royal assent if it passes, or calling a general election.
To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny
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