UK

Boris Johnson’s brutal contempt poisons Commons debate

Unrepentant PM outrages MPs with a display he was really aiming at angry voters

Boris Johnson responds to critics of his language around the Brexit debate by saying that the best way to honour the memory of Jo Cox, an MP who was killed in a politically-motivated attack in 2016, is "to get Brexit done."

Denis Staunton's face
Denis Staunton London Editor
Wed Sep 25 2019 - 22:00

The House of Commons has seen many rancorous debates in recent months but seldom has the air been as thick with sulphur as during Boris Johnson’s statement on Wednesday night.

The prime minister was himself responsible for poisoning the atmosphere with the brutal contempt he showed for opposition MPs, particularly women who criticised his provocative language.

Johnson’s statement was billed as a response to the supreme court’s ruling that he acted unlawfully in seeking to suspend parliament for five weeks. But he dismissed the judgment in a couple of sentences, showing no repentance before devoting the rest of his speech to goading the opposition about their failure to vote for an election.

I have to say Mr Speaker, I've never heard so much humbug in my life

The Conservative benches broke with convention by applauding the prime minister but their display looked less like a celebration than an anxious expression of menace.

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Johnson's thuggish foreign secretary Dominic Raab sat next to him like a protective Rottweiler, a vein in his forehead throbbing angrily each time an MP criticised his master.

Next to Raab, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg looked uneasy, his eyes darting shiftily as opposition MPs quoted his reported description of the supreme court ruling as a “constitutional coup”.

‘Surrender’

Much of the opposition's criticism of Johnson focused on his language and tone, particularly his use of words like "surrender", "capitulation" and "humiliation" to describe legislative attempts to block a no-deal Brexit.

Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff urged the prime minister to avoid inflammatory language, describing how she had been unable return home on police advice following death threats.

“With many of us in this place subject to death threats and abuse every single day, let me tell the prime minister – they often quote his words. Surrender act. Betrayal. Traitor. And I for one am sick of it. We must moderate our language - and it has to come from the prime minister first. He should be absolutely ashamed of himself,” she said.

Sherriff was close to tears when she was speaking but Johnson was unimpressed.

"I have to say Mr Speaker, I've never heard so much humbug in my life," he said.

Many MPs in the Commons, including some on his own benches, were outraged by his behaviour but they were not his audience. His focus was on the public outside, specifically Brexit-supporting voters who he hopes to galvanise in an election campaign pitting “the people against parliament”. And the angrier they feel, the better he will like it.

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