Boris Johnson tells MPs ‘back me or admit you’re trying to stop Brexit’

LONDON Oct 15: Boris Johnson has thrown down the gauntlet to MPs, telling them to either back any deal he brings back from Brussels – or admit they are trying to stop Brexit.

At the start of a defining week in politics, the Prime Minister told his Cabinet in a conference call there was still a ‘long way to go’ to hammer out an agreement.

But in a reference to his breakthrough meeting with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Merseyside last week, he added: ‘Where there’s a Wirral, there is a way.’

Negotiators are working around the clock in Brussels to agree the basis of a deal by tomorrow so it can be signed off by EU leaders at a summit starting Thursday.

Mr Johnson is hoping to put the agreement to a vote of MPs this weekend as the Commons sits on a Saturday for the first time since the Falklands War.

But he faces the threat of a rebel plot to hijack legislation so that any deal is subject to approval in a second referendum.