British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to listen to some harsh criticism from an angry Irishman when he went electioneering on the streets to drum up support for his approach to Brexit.
Johnson led the campaign to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum and famously promised that Britain would be able to get a ‘cake and eat it trade deal’ from the EU and be able to spend an extra £350m a week on the National Health Service.
He has failed to deliver on both those promises and is now threatening to take Britain out with no deal if the EU decision makers in Brussels don’t give in to his demands to ditch the Northern Ireland backstop.
The backstop is the mechanism whereby as a last resort if no other solution can be found, the UK will remain in close alignment with EU regulations to avoid the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
A No Deal Brexit would be very damaging to Ireland which trades heavily with the UK, a point which may have been at the forefront of an Irishman’s thinking when he bumped into Johnson while he was out meeting voters on the streets of Leeds in Yorkshire.
“You’re playing games. You’re playing games,” he shouts at Johnson, who replies: “What people want us to do is to leave the European Union on October 31st.”
“Well we all know that,” says the Irishman, “you should be in Brussels negotiating, where is the negotiation going on? Where is it?”
As Johnson turns away, the man continues: “You are in Morley, in Leeds. You should be in Brussels, leading the British people to negotiating against leaving the European Union. You are playing games!”
Someone in the crowd shouts that Johnson should be allowed to speak, to which the Irishman replies: “He’s been speaking for the last six weeks since he’s been elected and he’s said nothing, you have said nothing for the last six weeks! You’ve gone into Parliament and you played games!”
“Actually, that’s not true.” Johnson replies.
“It’s completely true, playing games with Parliament, playing games with the people of the United Kingdom. You should be in Brussels negotiating.”
You can see the confrontation here.
After his conversation with the Irishman, Johnson then turns away and although he meets people who support his stance on Brexit, there are others who share the concerns of the Irishman, if not his style.
One of them walked up to Johnson with a beaming smile on his face, lulling and Johnson into a false sense of security, and delivers a crushing blow in a very understated way; still smiling, the man looks Johnson in the eye and says: “please leave my town.”
Johnson replied that he would so very soon before turning away looking somewhat chastened.
Before anyone goes swallowing any of Boris Johnson's claptrap about 'the will of the people' here's a reminder what 'the people' actually have to say to him…
"Please leave my town"
Can we add "and power"? pic.twitter.com/8Sm1vdUvAk— The Prole Star (@TheProleStar) September 8, 2019
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