Boris Johnson’s resignation caps off tumultuous tenure

Peter Aitken , Anders Hagstrom – July 7, 2022

Boris Johnson announced plans to resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom on Thursday in a tumultuous end for a government that once enjoyed a strong democratic mandate.

Johnson’s roughly three-year tenure ended in disarray after he threatened a standoff with his party and a possible general election following the resignation of 42 ministers who deemed his position “untenable.” He says new leadership is “clearly now the will” of Parliament.

Johnson hopes to remain in a caretaker position as his Conservative Party elects a new prime minister, a process that may take roughly two months.

“I have appointed a new cabinet who will serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place,” he said. “When the herd instinct moves, it moves.”

Conservative ministers declared that they had lost confidence in the prime minister after news emerged he had elevated Chris Pincher to the powerful role of deputy chief whip despite allegations of sexual misconduct.

But it was not the only scandal that Johnson’s government had to wrangle with. It was merely the final one that ministers could tolerate, bringing an end to his sole ambition and goal in politics.

“Boris Johnson’s place in history is assured given his stewardship of Brexit, vaccine rollout during the COVID-19 crisis and staunch defense of the free world in Ukraine,” Alan Mendoza, co-founder and executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

https://www.foxnews.com

G7 Summit Group Wants to Expand Killing Babies in Abortions Worldwide

Marie Smith – Jun 11, 2021

The Group of Seven (G7) Summit is taking place in the UK from June 11-13 under the presidency of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an aim to “build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous.”  Last year’s G7 Summit under the presidency of President Donald Trump was postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.

One of six official G7 engagement groups is Women 7 (W7) which is described as bringing together “women’s rights advocacy groups from the G7 countries and around the world committed to women and girls’ rights.”  Its objective is “to ensure that G7 leaders adopt concrete commitments that lead to a tangible, lasting and transformative impact on women and girls’ lives in 2021 and beyond”. The “transformative impact on women and girls’ lives” the pro-abortion activists of the W7 seek will be deadly for unborn children during a global crisis that has already ended nearly 3.8 million lives.

The W7 resorted to the use of bullying in its call for the G7 members — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States— to threaten countries with “isolation from the G7” if any dares to enact pro-life foreign policies like President Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy, previously known as the Mexico City Policy, which prevented U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to international NGOs that perform or promote abortion on demand.

The W7 communique—Making gender equality a reality, Recommendations to the G7— calls on the G7 to “Agree that future reinstatement of restrictive policies, like the Mexico City Policy, will result in consequences, such as isolation from the G7.”

It wants the G7 to establish a trust fund for abortion access in order to ensure “sustained financial support in the face of any future restrictive policies”—meaning to counter the actions of any future G7 leader who values the lives of unborn children and refuses to enable their demise. Additional funding is also sought for pro-abortion organizations as is the integration of abortion in other programs such as domestic violence hotlines.

https://www.lifenews.com

Christian Pastor Arrested in London for Quoting ‘Homophobic’ Bible Verses

Kurt Zindulka  – April 29, 2021

Police in London arrested a Christian street preacher for allegedly causing “alarm and distress” to pedestrians for citing allegedly “homophobic” verses from Genesis.

On Friday, Pastor John Sherwood was preaching alongside Pastor Peter Simpson of the Penn Free Methodist Church outside the Uxbridge Underground Station — in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own constituency.

Writing in the Conservative Woman on Tuesday, Pastor Simpson said that Sherwood preached on the final verses of Genisis 1, saying: “God’s design in creating mankind was to set human beings in families, headed by a father and a mother, not by two fathers or by two mothers. The distinction within mankind of just two genders, male and female, made in the image of God, constitutes the essence of God’s created order.”

Simpson said that the police informed them that three complaints were made in response to the street sermon.

He said that a police officer warned that he and Sherwood should avoid making any “homophobic statements” and that there is “no freedom to make statements which offend people”.

The police ultimately dragged Sherwood off his step stool and forcibly handcuffed the septuagenarian preacher.

“This dignified man of God, who is in his early 70s, was marched off to a nearby police car, as one of the helpers from my church cried out, ‘What has happened to us as a nation that a man can no longer preach from the Bible?” Pastor Simpson related.

https://www.breitbart.com

In outright defiance of UK PM, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s party promises second independence referendum after pandemic

RT – January 23, 2021

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is standing by her threat to hold a fresh referendum on independence if her party wins the May elections, despite Boris Johnson saying another one should not take place until at least 2055.

Sturgeon likened UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to a “cowering tim’rous beastie” – a line from the poem ‘To a Mouse’, about a scared mouse, by Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns – during an interview with the BBC on Sunday. The Scottish leader also accused Johnson of being “frightened of democracy” by opposing another Scottish referendum until at least 2055 – just over 40 years after the last referendum in 2014, when a 55 percent majority of Scots voted against independence.

“The polls now show that a majority of people in Scotland want independence,” Sturgeon declared, adding, “If the SNP win the Scottish election in a few months’ time on a proposition of giving people that choice, then what democrat could rightly stand in the way of that?”

She added, “Boris Johnson clearly just fears the verdict and the will of the Scottish people.”

Various polls have repeatedly showed that a majority of Scots now support independence, with the most recent placing the number at around 52 percent. It was the 20th poll in a row to show that a majority of Scots support independence.

On Saturday, the SNP revealed in its “roadmap to a referendum” that a draft independence referendum bill “would be enacted if an SNP Scottish Government is re-elected with a majority to do so” in the May 2021 elections. The party claimed that such a referendum would be beyond any “legal challenge” from the UK government, though it stressed that any referendum would only be held after the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.rt.com

Brexit deal is finally DONE as Boris Johnson hails ‘immense moment where we have taken back control of our destiny’

– December 25, 2020

BORIS Johnson hailed “glad tidings of great joy” in a Christmas message last night after sealing his £660billion Brexit trade deal.

The PM gave the nation an early Christmas present yesterday as he secured a historic agreement which finally sees the UK take back control from the EU and ends four years of bitter wrangling.

Mr Johnson last night punched the air as he proudly showed off the 500-page trade deal.

Speaking in a video on Twitter, the PM said: “Tonight, on Christmas Eve, I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment.

“And here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy because this is a deal.

“A deal to give certainty to business, travelers, and all investors in our country from January 1.

“A deal with our friends and partners in the EU.

“You remember the oven ready deal by which we came out on January 31, that oven ready deal was just the start – this is the feast, full of fish, by the way.

“And I believe it will be the basis of a happy and successful and stable partnership with our friends in the EU for years to come.

https://www.thesun.co.uk

Brexit: Some progress, more gaps as UK, EU race to lock down trade deal

DW – December 18, 2020

Leaders from Britain and the European Commission did not take an overly optimistic tone following talks late Thursday over a trade deal that would keep the UK from crashing out of a transition period with the EU without a deal in place.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said “substantial progress” had been made on several issues, but fishing rights remained a point of contention. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a no-deal outcome was becoming “very likely.”

“We welcomed substantial progress on many issues. Yet big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries. Bridging them will be very challenging,” von der Leyen said following Thursday’s talks, adding that negotiations will continue on Friday.

With just days to go before the end-of-year deadline, Downing Street opted for a more pessimistic tone.

“The prime minister repeated that little time was left,” a spokesman for the British PM said. “He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”

Australia doesn’t have a free trade deal with the bloc.

https://www.dw.com

Boris Johnson Says ‘Strong Possibility’ of UK, EU Failing to Agree on Trade Deal

Sputnik – December 11, 2020

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said on Thursday that there is a “strong possibility” that his country and the European Union will fail to conclude a free trade agreement before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

During an interview at Downing Street that was screened by UK broadcasters, the prime minister said there was a “strong possibility” that both sides would fail to resolve their differences, and urged citizens and businesses to step up preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

The prime minister said that the EU’s proposals were “not, at the moment, right for the UK,” citing concerns over the bloc’s desire to establish a set of rules and procedures to prevent businesses in one country from undercutting their rivals in another country, also known as the level playing field.

Johnson also cited the ongoing disagreements over fisheries as another major issue preventing a deal being reached.

https://sputniknews.com

Fishing Holds Key to Brexit Trade Deal as Talks Drag on

Newsmax – December 4, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — In the decisive final days of talks, the tiny fishing industry is holding up a massive trade deal between the European Union and recently departed Britain, putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of euros in annual production losses.

While fishing is a negligible part of the nations’ economies, it is an important point of national pride for coastal and island nations and has a massive impact on politics.

Arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage put so much stock in the importance of fishing that at one point during his successful 2016 campaign to get Britain out of the EU he steamed up the Thames on a fishing vessel.

Sir Ivan Rogers, a former career diplomat who long was the UK’s man at EU headquarters in Brussels, knows what the task is of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the final weeks before the Jan. 1 deadline.

“He has to emerge with a win on fisheries,” Rogers told a panel at the EPC think tank this week.

If Johnson cannot expel enough EU fishing boats from U.K. waters, a no-deal Brexit would surely ensue, creating chaos and costs for all and ruin for some.

U.K. vessels landed close to 1 billion pounds of fish last year; the gross domestic product of the United Kingdom last year stood at 2.17 trillion pounds, “It’s not about economics, it’s about politics and the symbolism,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of Britain’s National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.

https://www.newsmax.com

Brexit Talks Back on Less than Week After Boris Told UK to Prepare for Clean Break

Victoria Friedman – October 22, 2020

Negotiations between the UK and EU recommenced on Thursday less than one week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced talks had been a failure and told the nation to prepare for a no-deal, clean-break Brexit.

On Friday, the prime minister’s office had gone as far as telling Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier not to bother coming to London this week to continue trade talks, after Johnson’s deadline of October 15th came and went without significant progress towards signing a free trade agreement. The UK said that negotiations could only recommence if there was a substantial change to Brussels’ position.

For months, the EU has expected the UK to be the only partner in talks to compromise, with the bloc insisting on continued access to Britain’s fishing waters and agreement to anti-competition rules.

There appeared to be movement on the EU’s side, however, when Mr Barnier told the European Parliament on Wednesday: “We will seek the necessary compromises on both sides. In order to do our utmost to reach an agreement, we will do so right up until the last day that it’s possible to do so.”

“We want a deal that will be mutually beneficial to both parties in respect of the autonomy and sovereignty of both sides. A deal reflecting a balanced compromise.

“An agreement is within reach.”

The UK’s negotiator Lord David Frost said in response that “a basis for negotiations with the EU and Michel Barnier has been re-established”.

https://www.breitbart.com

Boris Walks Away! Bombshell Announcement as UK Declares EU Talks Have Failed

Oliver JJ Lane – October 16, 2020

The European Union has shown no intention of accepting entering into a “Canada-style” deal with the United Kingdom in the post-Brexit era and talks have therefore failed, Boris Johnson said on Friday on the second day of a crunch EU summit.

The United Kingdom will now be putting its energy into preparing the country for a full no-deal Brexit on January 31st, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday lunchtime, after two days of high-level talks with European leaders appeared to have failed in producing progress.

The talks had stalled for months over very fundamental differences over what both sides wanted out of the future relationship. While Britain wanted a deal with Europe the same as the one the bloc had already struck with Canada — a former British dominion with similar cultural, political, and legal traditions — which would allow easy trade without the EU exerting political control over the nations’ capital, Brussels had different ideas.

Insisting a Canada-style deal was not possible because the UK was in closer geographical proximity to the European Union, Brussels negotiators instead wanted to retain key controls over Britain, including the right to impose EU laws on Britain and to make decisions over British territorial waters.

Noting despite months of talks nothing consequential had changed in that situation as of today, Mr Johnson said the EU insisting it keep those controls were “completely unacceptable to an independent country”.

https://www.breitbart.com