Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 26 July 2019

Showdown looms as new British PM wants to redo Brexit deal

By JILL LAWLESS pound plummeting and
DANICA KIRKA plunge the U.K. into reces-
Associated Press sion.
LONDON (AP) — On his Nonetheless Johnson has
first full day in office, British vowed to complete Brexit
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and silence “the doubters,
urged the European Union the doomsters, the gloom-
on Thursday to rethink its sters” who believe it can’t
refusal to renegotiate the be done.
Brexit deal, setting himself But details remain scarce
on a twin-track collision about how Johnson’s gov-
course — with the bloc and ernment would alleviate
his own lawmakers — over the economic shock if Brit-
his vow to leave the EU by ain crashed out of the EU’s
Oct. 31. huge free-trading bloc, rip-
Johnson pledged to deliver ping up decades of agree-
Brexit and a “broader and ments regulating every-
bolder future,” as he ad- thing from aviation to drugs
dressed a rowdy session of to telecommunications.
Parliament. He said he was ready to
He was heckled loudly by talk to EU leaders “whenev-
an opposition determined er they are ready to do so,”
to thwart him, with Labour and also promised to “tur-
Party leader Jeremy Cor- Britain’s newly appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, holds his first Cabinet meeting, with bo-charge” planning for a
byn dismissing Johnson’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid and Secretary for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd, right, no-deal exit, with millions
“arm-waving bluster.” The at Downing Street in London, Thursday July 25, 2019. more allocated to a public
EU’s Brexit chief called Associated Press information campaign for
Johnson’s speech “com- ment was the last before a that has been rejected by leave — the U.K. — without citizens and businesses.
bative” and his demands six-week summer break. U.K. lawmakers. an agreement.” He also repeated his threat
unacceptable. Rejecting the Brexit with- “I hope that the EU will be Johnson later spoke by to withhold the exit pay-
Johnson, who took office drawal agreement nego- equally ready and that phone to European Com- ment of 39 billion pounds
on Wednesday after win- tiated by his predecessor they will rethink their cur- mission President Jean- ($49 billion) that May
ning a Conservative Party Theresa May, Johnson in- rent refusal to make any Claude Juncker, who once agreed to if there is no
leadership contest, has sisted that while he wanted changes to the Withdrawal again repeated the bloc’s deal.
less than 100 days to make a deal, it could only hap- Agreement,” he told Parlia- insistence that it will not re- Since taking office Wednes-
good on his promise to de- pen if the EU budged, es- ment during the 2½-hour negotiate the agreement day, Johnson has replaced
liver Brexit by Oct. 31. And pecially on an insurance session. “If they do not, on departure terms that it many of May’s ministers
Thursday’s session of Parlia- policy for the Irish border we will, of course, have to struck with May. with his own hand-picked
Juncker told Johnson that Cabinet of loyal Brexiteers,
“the withdrawal agree- and it met for the first time
ment is the best and only on Thursday.
agreement possible” but Many of them worked with
the EU was ready “to ana- Johnson in the 2016 refer-
lyze any ideas put forward endum campaign to leave
by the United Kingdom, the EU, as did much of
providing they are com- Johnson’s new backroom
patible with the withdrawal staff.
agreement.” Despite the new lineup,
The exchange was dis- Johnson faces the same
closed by an EU official problems that bedeviled
who asked not to be identi- May: heading a govern-
fied because of the confi- ment without a parliamen-
dentiality of the phone call. tary majority and with most
Chief EU Brexit negotiator lawmakers opposed to
Michel Barnier said John- leaving the EU without a di-
son’s “rather combative” vorce deal.
speech was part of the Lawmakers who oppose
British leader’s attempt “to a no-deal Brexit — includ-
heap pressure on the unity” ing some of the Conserva-
of the bloc. tive ministers in May’s gov-
In a message to the 27 re- ernment who were swept
maining member states, he away by Johnson — are
said the EU must “be ready vowing to put up a fight
for all scenarios.” when Parliament returns
Without a divorce deal, from its break in Septem-
Britain faces a chaotic ber.
Brexit that economists warn “This House will stop the
would disrupt trade by im- prime minister,” said Scot-
posing tariffs and customs tish National Party law-
checks between Britain maker Ian Blackford, who
and the bloc. They say that branded a no-deal Brexit
could send the value of the “economic madness.”q