Boris still unsure of Brexit

Johnson pulled off a major coup in agreeing a new divorce deal with the European Union leader, paving the way for him to deliver his promise to leave the bloc on 31 October.

BRITAIN’S Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses a press conference during a European Union Summit in Brussels on Thursday. AFP

LONDON, UK (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Friday seek to sell his Brexit deal to skeptical MPs, as he returns home fresh from an European Union (EU) victory but risking defeat in parliament.

Johnson pulled off a major coup in agreeing a new divorce deal with the EU leader, paving the way for him to deliver his promise to leave the bloc on 31 October.

But Thursday’s deal must still pass the House of Commons, which is meeting for a special session on Saturday to debate the text — and many MPs are strongly opposed.

Looking tired after days of intense negotiations, Johnson told a Brussels press conference late Thursday that he was “very confident” of getting the deal through.

But he has no majority among MPs, opposition parties have come out against the deal and even his parliamentary allies, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, say they cannot support the terms.

If the Commons rejects the deal on Saturday, Johnson will be forced by law to ask the EU to delay Brexit, for what would be the third time — something he says he will not do.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker sought to focus MPs’ minds, saying Brussels can see no need to prolong the tortuous, three-year Brexit process.

“We have a deal, and this deal means there is no need for any kind of prolongation,” he said — although the decision to delay, if requested by London, would be for EU leaders.

He further warned that if British PMs rejected the deal it would create an “extremely complicated situation.”

Johnson, a leading Brexit campaigner in the 2016 EU referendum campaign, took office in July vowing to keep to the 31 October Brexit deadline, deal or no deal.

He pledged to renegotiate the most contentious elements of a divorce text agreed with Brussels last year, which was rejected by MPs three times.

But he has found that extricating Britain from four decades of economic, legal and political integration with its European neighbors is no easy task.