Boris Johnson says Brexit delay is ‘pointless’ as he urges MPs to back his deal

Boris Johnson has appealed to MPs to get behind his Brexit deal, warning any further delay would be “pointless” and “corrosive” of public trust.

With Parliament sitting on Saturday for the first time in 37 years, the Prime Minister said the agreement he struck in Brussels represented “the best possible solution”.

However he faces the prospect of further deadlock in the Commons, with opposition parties threatening to withhold approval until legislation to implement the deal is in place.

The architect of the plan, former cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin, said it was simply an “insurance policy” to ensure the UK could not “crash out” of the EU without a deal on October 31.

With many of his fellow MPs who had the Tory whip withdrawn expected to back the amendment, the Government is facing a strong possibility of defeat.

If they lose, it is expected that ministers will simply order Conservative MPs to go home without voting on the main motion to back the deal.

They are then expected to introduce the legislation to implement the agreement next week in bid to get it through Parliament by the deadline of October 31.

A Government source said: “A vote for Letwin is a vote for delay.

“The public would be appalled if MPs just vote for another pointless delay again.”

In his opening statement, the Prime Minister urged MPs to abandon the “delusion” that they could simply delay Brexit yet again.

“Whatever letters they may seek to force the Government to write, it cannot change my judgment that further delay is pointless, expensive and deeply corrosive of public trust,” he said.

“And people simply will not understand how politicians can say with one breath that they want delay to avoid no deal and then with the next breath that they still want delay when a great deal is there to be done.

“Now is the time to get this thing done, and I say to all members let us come together as democrats to end this debilitating feud.”