BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Theresa May was met with laughter by her parliament this afternoon after she was asked whether she took Boris Johnson’s advice to ask Donald Trump to take over Brexit negotiations.
A number of controversial remarks by Foreign Secretary Johnson were revealed after tapes were published last week (this included a remark about the Irish border being “a millenial bug” issue). Johnson said that his admiration for Trump had grown and that he’s of the opinion that “there is method in his madness”.
Imagine Trump doing Brexit – what would he do? He’d go bloody hard.
There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.
Today during Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn took the opportunity to ask May:
When the Prime Minister met President Donald Trump last week, did she do as the Foreign Secretary suggested and asked him to take over the Brexit negotiations?
This prompted an eruption of laughter, shouting and hurrahs from members of the House of Commons – Johnson himself is shown grinning after the opposition leader’s question.
Johnson is seen as one of the possible successors to May, whose position grows increasingly tenuous in the UK’s unstable political atmosphere which was partly caused by Brexit.
In response to Corbyn, May attempted to answer the question but the laughter continued, to the point where the speaker (the chairperson of the parliament) had to intervene and bring about order. He told one MP:
“In a leap year anyway you must attempt to recover your composure man! I’m worried about you and I’m worried for you.”
May has a tough week ahead of her as she grapples with a series of votes on the UK’s flagship EU Withdrawal Bill, which comprises British law post-Brexit. The next summit with the EU is due to be held at the end of the month.
Her government won a crucial vote yesterday evening with some minor concessions, and won another one tonight against exploring having a relationship with the EU similar to the “Norway model”.
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