Boris Johnson: I won't pay £39bn unless EU gives Britain better exit terms
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Boris Johnson has claimed only he can see off both Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn as he urged Tory MPs and party members to make him their next leader and prime minister.
The leadership campaign frontrunner, who is up against the likes of Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab, has claimed he would refuse to pay the promised £39bn divorce bill to the European Union unless better Brexit terms are on offer.
He added that he would step up preparations to counter no-deal "disruption", and told the Sunday Times that he could defeat the twin threat posed by the Brexit Party and Labour leaders.
Comparing them to the sea monsters from Greek mythology which troubled Odysseus, he said: "I truly believe only I can steer the country between the Scylla and Charybdis of Corbyn and Farage and on to calmer water.
"This can only be achieved by delivering Brexit as promised on 31 October and delivering a One Nation Tory agenda."
He said he would scrap the backstop - something the EU has so far refused to do - and would settle the Irish border issue only when Brussels is ready to agree to a future relationship.
"I always thought it was extraordinary that we should agree to write the entire cheque before having a final deal," he said.
"In getting a good deal, money is a great solvent and a great lubricant."
The former foreign secretary has so far received backing from prominent Brexiteer Steve Baker, and has also picked up endorsements from cabinet ministers James Brokenshire, Chris Grayling and Alun Cairns, and former international development secretary Priti Patel.
Meanwhile leadership rival Sajid Javid's campaign has received a boost with an endorsement from Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.
Her decision to back Mr Javid came as he set out his own plan to tackle the Irish border issue by spending hundreds of millions on a technological solution.
The Home Secretary said there is a moral duty on the UK to pay for measures at the Irish border in an effort to secure a Brexit breakthrough.
Rory Stewart's camp said he is the challenger best placed to take on Mr Johnson, pointing to polling by Opinium which puts the two leadership candidates neck-and-neck on the question of "would they make a good prime minister".
Dominic Raab ruffled feathers when he suggested the possibility of suspending parliament in order to secure Brexit if he was made Conservative leader and prime minister.
This would mean shutting down debate and sending MPs on holiday so they would be unable to have a say, potentially dragging the Queen into a constitutional row, a plan described as "unlawful" by Mr Stewart in a tweet.
Mr Raab said it was "very unlikely" it would be necessary to prorogue parliament in order to prevent MPs blocking a no-deal Brexit, but taking the option off the table would be a mistake.
"I think it's wrong to rule out any tool to make sure that we leave by the end of October," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
"The exam question in this contest is 'who can be trusted to lead us out by the end of October and end this paralysing uncertainty'."
Following Theresa May's resignation as Tory leader on Friday, the race to replace her is in motion and the nomination process will take place on Monday.
Candidates require eight MPs to back them in order to enter the race, with the first round of voting on Thursday.
Initial image: Boris Johnson says he would refuse to pay the promised £39bn to the European Union
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They are mad!
The deal with the EU was negotiated - finished - over - closed - over a year ago.
I know that President Trump has shown the world that a nation may trash any and all of its international commitments at any time... but... there's a bit of difference between the Mexico / US relationship and the UK / EU relationship. Basically... they're direct opposite relationships... The EU is the 800-lb gorilla...
Ever since, EU leaders have made it clear that the deal was not going to be renegotiated.
All the Conservative leaders know this... so they all know that Boris is makin' shit up.
The Art of the Deal...
I just don't get what leverage England thinks it has over the EU that they think they can demand exit terms. You want out? You're out, no EU regulations AND no EU benefits either.
Funny how willing so many people are to take a 8% lower standard of living when Jolly Old has a fair percentage of hungry children already.
Getting out of the EU (look at the people who want it so bad) will "help" the very wealthy because I think that the EU doesn't allow the wealthy to hide their money offshore to avoid taxes, and you know how much the wealthy hate that, cheating on taxes is very fair, right? and there are US and other insurance companies that see a great market for junk insurance policies, if they can get rid of that public health insurance.
There's the "Sovereign Country" hype, but England has to import almost everything because they no longer have colonies around the world for their raw materials.
The only people that I see benefiting from brexit are the wealthy and the unscrupulous who are looking for ways to get rich or richer. I see absolutely no other benefit for anybody.
Woops, except it weakened the EU and weakens England, and got some discord passed out so I'm sure Putin benefits and enjoys it to boot.
The UK has always been a lukewarm member. The sooner they're gone, the better.
They owe the money that was negotiated. Ongoing community expenses.
Refusing to pay would be wrong, morally and politically. And stupid.
The EU is by far the most important trading partner, and if anyone imagines that Donald Trump will, from the kindness of his heart, give the Brits trading conditions worth € 60 billion... they haven’t been watching Mexican news!
I can't see England getting any kind of a good deal from trump. trump is certainly going to make a very lopsided deal at best, because he needs a win of some kind for 2020.
They'd be better off dealing with the EU as a different and foreign country, but trying to use their debt as some kind of leverage is going to force them to take any deal trump offers.
Poor England.
Oh, yeah!
English is only a shell of what it used to be (world colonizer). Their time has come and gone, but it would seem that they feel that they are somehow a power to be reckoned with. They are not.
Pay what you owe and leave. I doubt that the EU is going to collapse over their leaving.
The EU is by far the UK's biggest trading partner, and that's not going to change overnight. If the government doesn't want to pay what it owes... I'll bet that the EU will find someone else who won't have any choice - UK exporters, for example.
Much of the debate in the UK is over whether it’s better to have their strongest ties with the EU or with the USA/Canada. Since blood is stronger than water the links to the USA and Canada are stronger that that of simply being a part of the same continent.
then again... the uk might wake up one day soon to find it has already left the eu.
Nobody's crystal ball seems accurate about Brexit.
"That's way too crazy to happen" is a sure thing...
the only sure thing on any subject is that no matter what happens next, it will piss someone off.
cheers
I wish the U.K. the best in its efforts to free itself from the bondage that is the EU. Obama said they’d have to go to the back of the line in getting a trade deal with America if they left the EU and Trump will give them one in the front of the line. There can be a US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand partnership and add Mexico and Chile and Ireland to it, thus UK gets access to Latin America and we through Ireland get access to Europe. Also Italy is considering leaving the EU and it wouldn’t take much to pull Poland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, and Romania out of the orbit of the EU and into a USA led alternative.