Boris Johnson news: Government tells public to ‘get ready’ in £100m advertising blitz amid slew of dire no-deal warnings
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has called for the UK and EU to “step up the tempo” on Brexit talks, with No 10’s team of negotiators set to meet their counterparts in Brussels twice a week next month as the 31 October deadline looms.
It comes as former prime minister Sir John Major announced he would join a legal bid to block Mr Johnson’s move to suspend parliament for almost five weeks.
As rebel Tory MPs threaten to join opposition efforts to prevent a no-deal Brexit, organisers are hoping “hundreds of thousands” of people will take part in disruptive protests against the prorogation over the weekend.
Sky News have run their interview with Boris Johnson, in which the prime minister accuses Remain-supporting MPs of harming his chances of securing a new Brexit deal.
Johnson said:
What I want to do now, what most people in this country want this government to do, is get on and try and get an agreement.
But if we can't get an agreement, get ready to come out anyway.
It's by getting ready to come out anyway that we've greatly strengthened our position with our friends and partners in the EU.
Because they see that we're serious and - just to get back to parliament - I'm afraid that the more our friends and partners think, at the back of their minds, that Brexit could be stopped, that the UK could be kept in by parliament, the less likely they are to give us the deal we need.
That's why I really hope MPs will allow the UK to do a deal and to get ready for a no-deal Brexit. That's the best way forward for our country, believe me.
Boris Johnson is "tearing the country apart" with no plan to bring people together again, Gordon Brown has said.
The former primer minister said Johnson was "shredding the constitution" after he announced plans to suspend parliament next month.
Brown warned it would take "years if not decades" to reconcile the "competing nationalisms" that are tearing the country into pieces.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Our Scottish Future think tank in Edinburgh, the Labour ex-PM told an audience:
We meet at the end of a week which has triggered the biggest peace-time constitutional crisis in recent history - an ugly battle between a sovereign parliament and a government claiming it is a non-sovereign parliament - with questions being raised not just about what kind of Brexit but what kind of Britain.
This is now about the very survival of the United Kingdom.
Only four weeks into his premiership, Boris Johnson is not only shredding our constitution but tearing the country apart with no plan to bring people together again and no unifying national project to ever do so.
Leadership should be about healing divisions and not accentuating them.
But today I see a Britain that has never been so divided - Leavers versus Remainers, north versus south, cities versus towns, young versus older - a Britain now being broken into pieces by competing nationalisms.
We now have Scotland-first nationalism, England-first, Northern Ireland-first and Wales-first nationalisms - all challenging the very idea of one United Kingdom and creating divisions so deep that reconciliation will take years if not decades of soul searching to repair the damage being done.
Belfast's High Court will no longer hear an application for an injunction against the prime minister's decision to suspend parliament today.
Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan told victims campaigner Raymond McCord, who made the legal bid, that if he wanted to pursue the matter a judge would decide on 3 September if the case should be heard later next week.
McCord is already taking judicial review proceedings to prevent a no-deal Brexit and the hearing on that wider issue is still listed to take place on 16 September.
Sir Declan questioned the merits of hearing the case to injunct proroguing until it became clear what parliament's response to Boris Johnson's move might be.
"Every morning you wake up and there's something new that has occurred here," he said during Friday's short hearing in Belfast High Court.
The government has ruled out a “technical” extension of the Brexit deadline to give parliament time to ratify a new deal.
A leaked EU diplomatic note seen by The Independent says the chief UK negotiator David Frost privately ruled out an extension.
Here’s our Europe correspondent Jon Stone with the details.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said he would also be joining Gina Miller’s legal action against the suspension of parliament, calling the move “an unprecedented affront to democracy”.
Watson said: “Proroguing parliament is an unprecedented affront to democracy. The rights and freedoms of our citizens have been vandalised. This is an abuse of power that can and should be stopped.
“I have taken advice on legislative solutions to challenge the prime minister’s action to stop us crashing out of the EU without a deal. I am in discussions with colleagues in other parties and a bill to achieve this outcome has been drafted.
“I will be joining the judicial review launched in the High Court by Gina Miller and supported by John Major as a claimant.
“I will be represented by Mishcon de Reya, Tom Hickman and David Pannick QC. I intend to assist the court from the perspective of an active legislator to ensure that there is sufficient time for members of all parties to consider and vote on the bill.”
Boris Johnson has claimed opposition MPs “won’t be forgiven” if they manage to block Brexit from happening on 31 October.
The PM also warned of “lasting damage” if Brexit is delayed as Sir John Major said he would fight the prorogation of parliament in court.
“I’m afraid that the more our friends and partners think, at the back of their mind, that Brexit could be stopped, that the UK could be kept in by parliament, the less likely they are to give us the deal that we need,” he told Sky News.
On a possible backlash if the 2016 referendum were not respected, he said: “If we frustrate that mandate, if we stop the UK from leaving on October 31, if that’s what parliamentarians end up doing, it will do lasting damage to people’s trust in politics.
“It will do lasting and catastrophic damage to the major parties in this country and I think this political generation won’t be forgiven for failing to honour that promise.”
Protesters have gathered outside the British embassy in Brussels to demonstrate against the suspension of parliament.
Around 100 people, mostly UK nationals living in the city, were heard chanting “Stop the coup”.
Our Europe correspondent Jon Stone is at the scene.
No 10 has selected “Get ready” as the slogan for a £100m advertising campaign to prepare the public for a no-deal Brexit.
Ministers have even ordered mugs and t-shirts with the slogan. A proposal to use the infamous Vote Leave slogan “Take back control” was reportedly floated but rejected for being too partisan.
Lizzy Buchan has all the details.
Opposition MPs believe they have the numbers to block any “public school dirty tricks” that could allow Boris Johnson to force through a no-deal Brexit.
Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, said Labour was expecting more Tories could join the rebel efforts to thwart the PM.
Lizzy Buchan has more.
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