UK: Johnson Says Is Serious About Going through With ’No-Deal’ Brexit

By Staff, Agencies

Boris Johnson, the favorite to become British prime minister, said he will seek a new Brexit deal with the European Union but if the bloc refuses his demands then he will lead the world's fifth largest economy out without agreement on Oct. 31.

The United Kingdom's three-year Brexit crisis could be about to deepen as Johnson's pledge to leave the EU with or without a deal on Halloween could provoke a standoff with the British parliament which has indicated its opposition to a no-deal exit.

No-deal means there would be no transition period so the exit would be abrupt, the nightmare scenario for many business leaders and the dream of hard Brexiteers who want a decisive split.

Johnson said he did not want a no-deal Brexit - which investors warn would roil financial markets and send shockwaves through the European economy - but that it was necessary to put it on the table so that Britain could get the result it wanted.

"The way to get our friends and partners to understand how serious we are is finally, I'm afraid, to abandon the defeatism and negativity that has enfolded us in a great cloud for so long and to prepare confidently and seriously for a WTO or no-deal outcome," he told BBC TV.