BRUSSELS: Boris Johnson has taken the first step up his Brexit mountain. If he’s careless, he could be buried under an avalanche.
As he travels back to London from Brussels, the British Prime Minister has good reason to feel upbeat. He was told he’d never get a new Brexit deal and that his plans to replace the Irish border backstop were a non-starter.
Yet, as his swaggering senior advisers were keen to point out to journalists here in Brussels, he’s proved everyone wrong. That’s good news. The bad news is that he might have kicked off a chain of events that could bring his time as Prime Minister to a premature end. He now faces what will be two of the most painful days of his career back in London.
On Friday, Johnson will have to convince lawmakers across the political divide that they should back his new Brexit deal.
It’s a tough ask. The main opposition Labour Party hates the deal and wants to negotiate its own one and then put that deal to a public referendum. Other opposition parties want to scrap Brexit altogether.
His supposed allies in the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party have rubbished his plan and said they won’t support it. And even some hardline Brexiteer members of his own Conservative party are looking shaky.
(Agencies)
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