PM: How can MPs justify being paid if they block Brexit?

The Prime Minister has questioned how MPs can “justify drawing their salaries” if they vote against his Brexit deal.

Boris Johnson was asked by a member of the public at a visit to the JCB factory in Staffordshire, whether MPs should stop being paid if they “continue to block Brexit”.

The worker said: “If you’re not in a majority on December 13, what’s your view on the justification on paying parliamentarians a salary for the next three years if they continue their belligerence, impotence and incompetence at getting anything done?”

The Prime Minister said it was a “particularly brilliant question”, adding: “I think the people of this country do want a positive, dynamic government that moves us forward.

“And what they don’t think that they want is paralysis, dither and drift and if you look at it, the last three-and-a-half years Brexit has been the biggest issue facing this country.

“The people of the UK mandated us in Westminster, all of us, to get it done.

“We promised time and time again that we would do it and I think one of the reasons people go on and on about trust in politics.

“One of the reasons trust in politics has been undermined, a major reason, is that parliamentarians have kept breaking that promise.”

He added: “Let’s move this thing forward… if MPs turn up and continue to block Brexit how on earth they can justify drawing their salaries, I don’t know.

“But I don’t think I would have the powers… under any circumstances to take away salaries from MPs.

“I think I would be accused of anti-democratic behaviour. But I take your point very sincerely.”