Boris Johnson has said “come what may, do or die” the UK will leave the European Union on October 31, as he challenged rival Jeremy Hunt to make the same pledge.
The Tory leadership front-runner yesterday said that if Brussels were not willing to negotiate a completely new Brexit deal he would take the UK out without an agreement by Halloween.
The former foreign sectary also hit out at Mrs May’s premiership, saying he had “never seen such morosity and gloom from a government”.
Mr Johnson, speaking to TalkRadio, said: “For three years we’ve been sitting around wrapped in defeatism telling the British public that they can’t do this or that. It is pathetic, it’s absolutely pathetic.”
“We are getting ready to come out on October 31. Come what may. Do or die.”
He later stressed that message in a letter to Mr Hunt.
Mr Johnson wrote: “Will you join me in a commitment to leaving on October 31 come what may?”
Mr Hunt replied on social media saying he would make clear his position if his rival agreed to take part in a head-to-head TV debate on Sky News, which Mr Johnson has so far refused to do.
However Mr Hunt, in an interview with the BBC last night, appeared to agree with the former London mayor that the UK’s exit terms had “to be different” to Mrs May’s deal and like Mr Johnson, he proposed a number of measures that have already been rejected by the EU.
Pressed on how he would achieve a new deal, Mr Hunt said: “Let’s not be negative, let’s not be pessimistic.
“There is a way we can do this but what we have to do is send the right prime minister to Brussels to have those negotiations, have those open discussions and then I think there is a deal to be done.”
He added: “I will say tough things when I need to say tough things. But I’ll also preserve the relationship.
“I think I’ve also shown as Foreign Secretary that I can have good links with European countries. And that’s why I’m the right person to deliver Brexit.”
The comments came as the candidates both took to the campaign trail in a bid to persuade Tory members to back them to succeed Mrs May in Downing Street.
Mr Johnson, who fielded questions in a number of broadcast interviews, was widely mocked online after he revealed he spent his spare time making models of buses out of old wine crates.
Mr Johnson, asked if he had any hobbies, said: “I get old wooden crates, right? And I paint them.
“I turn it into a bus and I paint the passengers enjoying themselves on the wonderful bus.”
Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames responded by suggesting Mr Johnson should have stuck with the famous “fields of wheat” line, which Theresa May once offered as the “naughtiest” thing she did as a child.
