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Boris Johnson Criticized Over Comments About Jo Cox Boris Johnson Criticized Over Comments About Jo Cox
(about 1 hour later)
LONDON — Many hours into a parliamentary session that was not supposed to happen, one female lawmaker after another pleaded with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday to soften his rhetoric, to stop accusing people of betrayal for disagreeing with him over Brexit, if for no other reason than their own safety. LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under severe criticism for his response to female lawmakers who asked him to calm his incendiary language in Parliament on Wednesday evening, and particularly for his reference to Jo Cox, an anti-Brexit member who was murdered a week before the 2016 referendum.
But Mr. Johnson dug in. Looking none too pleased to have been dragged back to Parliament for an unexpected sitting after the Supreme Court ruled that his efforts to sideline lawmakers were unlawful, he suggested that recalcitrant lawmakers had only themselves to blame for the climate of hostility and even violence that has enveloped British politics. One after another, women rose to ask the prime minister to modulate his remarks. Instead, he dug in. “I’ve never heard such humbug in all my life,” he said after a Labour lawmaker, Paula Sherriff, spoke of getting death threats from people who quoted words Mr. Johnson had used to describe his opponents: ‘‘surrender act,’’ “betrayal” and ‘‘traitor.’’
“I’ve never heard such humbug in all my life,” Mr. Johnson said after a Labour lawmaker, Paula Sherriff, spoke of getting death threats that quoted Mr. Johnson’s words. But what elicited the greatest outrage — and no small measure of disbelief — was Mr. Johnson’s response to a plea for moderation from Tracy Babin, the Labour lawmaker who was elected to the seat formerly occupied by Ms. Cox, who was stabbed and shot by a man shouting “Britain first” and “death to traitors.”
Then Tracy Brabin, another Labour lawmaker, stood up to speak. She had been elected to her seat after the killing of Jo Cox, a Labour member of Parliament who was murdered in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum by a man shouting “Britain first.” Ms. Brabin, too, asked Mr. Johnson to tone down his language. Far from calming things down, Mr. Johnson repeated his harsh words, accusing lawmakers of an act of “surrender” and “capitulation” for trying to stop him from pulling Britain out of the European Union without a deal governing future relations.
Instead, Mr. Johnson repeated it, accusing lawmakers of an act of “surrender” and “capitulation” for trying to stop him from pulling Britain out of the European Union without a deal governing future relations. “The best way to honor the memory of Jo Cox and indeed the best way to bring this country together would be, I think, to get Brexit done,” Mr. Johnson said.
“The best way to honor the memory of Jo Cox and indeed the best way to bring this country together would be, I think, to get Brexit done,” Mr. Johnson said, a statement that was met with no small measure of disbelief. “I don’t know why I’m ever shocked at how low Boris Johnson can go,” Jess Phillips, a Labour member of Parliament, said in a television interview about what he had to say about Ms. Cox. “For him then to use the memory of my dead friend, who was murdered in the street, to try and hammer home one more time his point — the only person who has surrendered anything is Boris Johnson and he’s surrendered his morality.”
For a prime minister known for provocative and sometimes intemperate comments and behavior, and who built his career on newspaper columns that observers said sometimes veered into racism and sexism, the eruption was not entirely out of character.
But having dressed up the sort of language he once used in a right-leaning newspaper column in all the ceremony of Parliament, Mr. Johnson still startled onlookers.
“I don’t know why I’m ever shocked at how low Boris Johnson can go,” Jess Phillips, a Labour member of Parliament, said in a television interview in addressing the prime minister’s remarks about Ms. Cox. “For him then to use the memory of my dead friend, who was murdered in the street, to try and hammer home one more time his point — the only person who has surrendered anything is Boris Johnson and he’s surrendered his morality.”
Brendan Cox, Ms. Cox’s widower, expressed dismay about the comments from the prime minister, but he also issued a plea on Twitter for all sides to tone down their language.Brendan Cox, Ms. Cox’s widower, expressed dismay about the comments from the prime minister, but he also issued a plea on Twitter for all sides to tone down their language.
“Feel a bit sick at Jo’s name being used in this way,” he wrote. “The best way to honour Jo is for all of us (no matter our views) to stand up for what we believe in, passionately and with determination. But never to demonise the other side and always hold onto what we have in common.” “Feel a bit sick at Jo’s name being used in this way,” he wrote. “The best way to honor Jo is for all of us (no matter our views) to stand up for what we believe in, passionately and with determination. But never to demonize the other side and always hold onto what we have in common.”
For a prime minister known for provocative and sometimes intemperate comments and behavior, and who built his career on newspaper columns that observers said sometimes veered into racism and sexism, the eruption was not entirely out of character.
But having dressed up the sort of language he once used in a right-leaning newspaper column in all the ceremony of Parliament, Mr. Johnson still startled most onlookers.
Opening the House of Commons on Thursday morning, the speaker, John Bercow, spoke somberly about the raucous scenes the night before. “There was an atmosphere in the chamber worse than any I’ve known in my 22 years in the House,” Mr. Bercow said. “On both sides, passions were inflamed. Angry words were uttered. The culture was toxic.”Opening the House of Commons on Thursday morning, the speaker, John Bercow, spoke somberly about the raucous scenes the night before. “There was an atmosphere in the chamber worse than any I’ve known in my 22 years in the House,” Mr. Bercow said. “On both sides, passions were inflamed. Angry words were uttered. The culture was toxic.”
He said lawmakers would be given time specifically to discuss Mr. Johnson’s inflammatory language later on Thursday, and closed by asking lawmakers “please to lower the decibel level, and try to treat each other as opponents, not as enemies.”He said lawmakers would be given time specifically to discuss Mr. Johnson’s inflammatory language later on Thursday, and closed by asking lawmakers “please to lower the decibel level, and try to treat each other as opponents, not as enemies.”
Parliament was sitting only after the Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that Mr. Johnson’s plan to suspend the body for five weeks had been unlawful. The prime minister was concerned that lawmakers would meddle in his plans to complete Brexit by Oct. 31, but the judges said he had gone too far. Parliament was sitting only after the Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that Mr. Johnson’s move to suspend the body for five weeks had been unlawful. The prime minister was concerned that lawmakers would meddle in his plans to complete Brexit by Oct. 31, but the judges said he had gone too far.
Addressing Brexit while speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson said that Britain and the European Union were making progress on reaching a deal. But on Thursday, Michel Barnier, the bloc’s lead negotiator in the Brexit talks, repeated a familiar refrain: Britain, he said, had failed to present a meaningful proposal to break the deadlock.Addressing Brexit while speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson said that Britain and the European Union were making progress on reaching a deal. But on Thursday, Michel Barnier, the bloc’s lead negotiator in the Brexit talks, repeated a familiar refrain: Britain, he said, had failed to present a meaningful proposal to break the deadlock.
Mr. Barnier said that he was “still ready to work on any new legal and operational proposal,” adding that four papers submitted from the British side in recent days failed to meet the standard he was looking for. Mr. Barnier said that he was “still ready to work on any new legal and operational proposal,” adding that four papers submitted from the British side in recent days had failed to meet the standard he was looking for.
“We are still waiting,” he said.“We are still waiting,” he said.