-Brexit debates of U.K. party leaders
British voters will go to the polls on Thursday, Dec. 12 for the U.K. general election that promises to shape the next parliament in dealing with crucial Brexit policies.
Last week, leaders of the Conservatives and Labour party, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in a TV debate hosted by ITV, laid out their views, goals and strategy for the country and on Brexit prior to the general election.
Johnson said the U.K. would leave the European Union in the New Year. He also affirmed that if the Labour Party forms a coalition with the Scottish nationals, a move he described as a “coalition of chaos” he said the country would face two more referendums.
Urging his voters to “get Brexit done,” Johnson said he has “a deal ready to go.”
'As soon as we can get that deal through Parliament, as we can in the next few weeks, we can get on with the people's priorities,' he said.
He warned the U.K. would face a further delay to departure from the EU under a Labour government.
Corbyn’s stance was outlined as giving back Brexit to the people in a vote to 'implement what you decide” adding that he believes in a “fairer Britain.”
'This election gives you a real choice about your future -- the future of your community and of our country,” he said.
'Labour is offering real change and real hope,' he added.
Corbyn was critical of the Conservative government’s performance and said it had 'failed' on the economy, on climate crisis, the National Health Service (NHS) and Brexit.
The problematic Irish border issue was another point of discussion during the debate with
Corbyn arguing that the “agreement that the prime minister...has put to Parliament was about creating a border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and creating a different customs arrangement for Northern Ireland with the rest of Ireland, having promised to the Democratic Unionist Party he would never do that.”
'Clearly, there is an issue there. Clearly, there are issues all around about this deal he has proposed,' he said.
But Johnson contended that his Brexit deal would ensure the whole of the U.K. would come out of the EU.
'Northern Ireland is part of the customs territory of the U.K. It's there in black and white,' he said.
The country’s national health service was another hot topic of debate. Corbyn weighed in with his point that the NHS would be on the table for negotiations between the U.K. and U.S. in a trade deal.
'What we know of what Mr. Johnson has done is a series of secret meetings with the United States in which they were proposing to open up our NHS markets as they call them to American companies,” Corbyn said.
Johnson refuted this claim, saying it “is an absolute invention.”
“It is completely untrue. There are no circumstances whatever in which this government or any Conservative government will put the NHS on the table in any trade negotiation,' he said.