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Boris Johnson today claimed the best thing for people’s “psychological health” would be to deliver Brexit as he defended himself over accusations of using “inflamed” language.
The Prime Minister has come under fire for referring to the so-called Benn Act – which requires him to seek a further Brexit delay if he cannot get a new deal with the EU – as the ‘Surrender Act’.
He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “The best thing for the country and for people’s overall psychological health would be to get Brexit done.
“It’s not just I who thinks that – if you look at where the public is, whether they voted Leave or Remain – they really think it’s up to Parliament now to get this thing over the line.”
Defended his use of words such as “surrender”, he said that to avoid doing so was “impoverishing the language and diminishing parliamentary debate”.
The Prime Minister admitted that tempers on both sides of the ;Brexit debate had become “inflamed” – but said it was wrong for parliamentarians to be crowded out from using words like surrender.
“I think what most people in this country would agree is that Brexit discussion has been going on for far too long and it is true that tempers on both sides have now become inflamed…
“The best way to end this is to get Brexit done on October 31st and move the country forwards.”
The Prime Minister also suggested that his use of the word “humbug” in response to Paula Sherriff may have been a misunderstanding.
“My use of the word humbug was in the context of people trying to prevent me – us – from using the word ‘surrender’,” he told the BBC.
Mr Marr said Ms Sheriff – who claimed people quoted the Prime Minister’s words in death threats to MPs – was talking about something “very specific”.
Mr Johnson said: “In that case, that was a total misunderstanding and that was wrong.”
He added: “I can certainly say sorry for the misunderstanding, but my intention was to refuse to be crowded out from using the word ‘surrender’ to describe the Surrender Act.”
