London – Boris Johnson has promised a new vote on his Brexit deal by Christmas if the Conservatives win Britain’s general election, ahead of the party’s manifesto launch on Sunday.
The Prime Minister said a quick lawmakers’ vote on his withdrawal agreement, which was on the cusp of progressing through the Parliament before Johnson pulled it in favor of an election, would open a “new chapter” in Britain’s history and allow the country to leave the European Union by its current deadline of January 31.
“As families sit down to carve up their turkeys this Christmas, I want them to enjoy their festive season free from the seemingly unending Brexit box-set drama,” Johnson said in a statement ahead of the launch — but Labour have warned his plan entails years of further trade negotiations with the EU and the United States.
Johnson is also set to announce a “triple lock” on income tax, national insurance and VAT rates when he unveils the document in the West Midlands, with less than three weeks to go until polling day.
The party’s manifesto elsewhere includes a childcare program, funding pledges for the National Health Service and a pledge to scrap hospital parking charges. A £2 billion ($2.5bn) plan to fill potholes around the country is also promised, in a document Johnson hopes will help pave the road towards Downing Street.
But after a bumpy three years of setbacks over the issue of Europe, the party’s headline pledge to “get Brexit done” — a mantra Johnson has frequently repeated on the campaign trail — will dominate the unveiling.
The document is more restrained in scope than the reformist agenda unveiled by the Labour Party last week, which promised free broadband, a major house-building program and a hike in the minimum wage.
Conservative Chancellor Sajid Javid told Sky News on Sunday that Britons’ “spending, borrowing and debt would be out of control” under that vision — but his Labour counterpart John McDonnell told the same network his party “would address the priorities, the real issues facing our community.”
The Prime Minister’s party is enjoying a healthy lead in opinion polls, though the range of predicted vote shares suggests a hung Parliament remains a possibility.
His newly proposed timetable to pass the withdrawal agreement would leave a matter of days between the election and Parliament’s break for Christmas.
It would be followed by more negotiations with the European Union over the future relationship between the two blocs, which Javid said could be achieved “by the end of next year.”
As reported by CNN