Britain’s new leader Johnson vows to get Brexit done

LONDON: Boris Johnson, the Brexiteer who has promised to lead Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal by the end of October, will replace Theresa May as prime minister after winning the leadership of the Conservative Party on Tuesday.

His convincing victory catapults the United Kingdom towards a showdown with the EU and towards a constitutional crisis at home, as British lawmakers have vowed to bring down any government that tries to leave the bloc without a divorce deal.

Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit referendum, won the votes of 92,153 members of the Conservative party, almost twice the 46,656 won by his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. May will leave office on Wednesday after going to Buckingham Palace to see Queen Elizabeth, who will formally appoint Johnson before he enters Downing Street.

“We are going to get Brexit done on Oct. 31, and we are going to take advantage of all the opportunities it will bring in a new spirit of ‘can do’,” Johnson, 55, said after the result was announced.

“Like some slumbering giant, we are going to rise and ping off the guy-ropes of self-doubt and negativity.”

EU tells incoming British PM Johnson it won’t change Brexit terms: The European Union on Tuesday congratulated incoming British Prime Minister Boris Johnson but was firm that it would not heed his election promises of renegotiating Brexit.

The bloc’s executive European Commission was willing to work with Johnson, a spokeswoman said, but the limits were clear.

“We look forward to working constructively with PM Johnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the withdrawal agreement and achieve an orderly Brexit,” said the bloc’s negotiator of the unprecedented divorce, Michel Barnier.

“We are ready also to rework the agreed declaration on a new partnership,” he added, referring to a political declaration that accompanies the legal withdrawal agreement.

Minutes before Johnson’s victory was announced in the Conservative Party leadership contest, the Commission’s deputy head Frans Timmermans said the EU would not agree to change the deal it had sealed with outgoing British leader Theresa May. That deal was rejected three times by the British parliament.

“The United Kingdom reached an agreement with the European Union and the European Union will stick to that agreement,” Timmermans told a news conference.

“This is the best deal possible.” Timmermans said the EU would hold the line on Brexit and that Johnson’s flamboyant “character or persona or attitude” made no difference.