The UK Prime Minister has apologised for failing to meet his do-or-die pledge to take the UK out of the EU on Halloween night.
Boris Johnson told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show that he is “deeply, deeply disappointed” that the UK is still in the EU – despite his insistence that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” that request an extension to the process from the EU.
“It is a matter of deep regret,” he said.
“But what we need to do now is get on and do it and the difference between this Government and any other party is that only this Government offers a deal that is ready to go and a way of delivering immediately in the middle of December.”
He insisted that negotiators brought back a "great new deal, which people said was impossible."
"Plus we got Parliament to say it was a good deal but then they refused to implement it," he said.
He said he made the decision to push for an election instead of getting the deal passed because he did not trust the House of Commons.
“The reason why it is necessary to have an election is because Parliament was going rope-a-dope us,” he said.
“They were going to say: ‘OK, you know, we’ll agree this, we’ll agree that’ – but they weren’t actually going to give final approval. Not by New Year, not by January 31st – and then we would have had to go for another extension.
“The reason why it’s so painful to have these extensions; it’s not because of, you know, my promises or my ego or whatever – it’s because of the uncertainty that it means for the whole country.
“Business can’t plan; families can’t plan; People just don’t know when Brexit is going to be done.”
“That’s why I think that the offer from the Labour Party is so crazy and so debilitating because what they’re saying is have another referendum and keep the whole thing going.”
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage launches his party's manifesto ahead of the General Election, 01-11-2019. Image: Alberto Pezzali/AP/Press Association Images
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has announced that he will not be standing in the upcoming UK General Election.
The Brexit Party leader said he will not stand as an MP so he can concentrate on running the campaign.
It comes after the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected Mr Farage’s invitation to form a Brexit alliance with his party by signing an election pact.
The Brexit Party now aims to run 600 candidates across the UK and Mr Farage told BBC's Andrew Marr programme that he believed his cause would be better served by travelling around the country instead of focusing on winning a seat.
“I've thought about it very hard,” he said.
“I thought, 'How do I serve the cause of Brexit best? Because that is what I am doing this for - not for my career, not to be in politics for the rest of my life.
“Do I find a seat? Try to get myself into parliament? Do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom supporting the 600 candidates?
“And I've decided the latter is the right one.”
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