U.K.’s Johnson Pulls Out of Parliamentary Scrutiny Hearing

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson at short notice pulled out of a Parliamentary scrutiny hearing in which he was due to answer questions from a panel of senior Members of Parliament who chair House of Commons Committees.

The U.K. prime minister had been due to give evidence to the Liaison Committee at 10 a.m. on Thursday, but he wrote to the panel’s chair, Sarah Wollaston, Wednesday to cancel.

“I am afraid I must now focus on delivering Brexit in the difficult circumstances in which we now find ourselves,” Johnson said in a handwritten letter posted on Twitter by Wollaston. He suggested postponing the appearance until he has been in office “for 5 or 6 months,” in line with the first appearance before the committee of his three immediate predecessors.

It’s the third time Johnson has postponed or cancelled an appearance before the committee, and comes after the House of Commons on Wednesday refused to endorse his plan to rush Brexit legislation through in time to take the U.K. out of the European Union on Oct. 31. That’s left him waiting on the EU’s verdict on whether to concede the three-month extension to Brexit that Parliament forced him to request.

Wollaston replied to the premier that she is “astonished” at the short notice of the cancellation, and accused him of “refusing to face detailed scrutiny.” She said in a letter to the premier that as well as Brexit, the panel had planned to ask him about climate change, health and social care.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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