UK Chancellor Hammond Intends To Quit If Johnson Becomes Prime Minister

Faizan Hashmi Published July 21, 2019 | 06:10 PM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2019) UK Chancellor Philip Hammond said on Sunday that he would resign the day Boris Johnson wins the vote to become the country's next prime minister because it is unacceptable for him to support the no-deal Brexit by October 31 deadline.

New UK prime minister will be announced on Tuesday, after some 160,000 Conservative Party members vote to choose between Johnson and UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Earlier, Johnson has said that if he becomes the prime minister, he would push for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union on October 31 either with or without a deal.

"Assuming that Boris Johnson becomes the next prime minister, I understand that his conditions for serving in his government would include accepting a no-deal exit on October 31 - that is not something I could ever sign up to. It's very important that the prime minister is able to have a chancellor who is closely aligned with him in terms of policy, and I therefore intend to resign to Theresa May before she goes to the Palace to tender her own resignation on Wednesday," Hammond told the BBC.

He added that aside from Brexit, he didn't have any major policy disagreements with Johnson.

Asked what if Hunt wins the vote, he said "That might be more complicated because Jeremy's position is more nuanced and I haven't heard him express clearly a requirement for a sort of loyalty pledge around the October 31 no-deal exit."

According to Hammond, nevertheless, all polls and bookmakers suggest that Johnson will win, and the question is just by how much.

Notably, Hammond was among government ministers who abstained from a lower house vote last week in order to prevent the next prime minister from suspending the parliament in a bid to adopt a no-deal UK withdrawal from the European Union.

Brexit already resulted in the resignation of two UK prime ministers, David Cameron and Theresa May, over the former's defeat in the Brexit referendum and the latter's failure to complete the country's withdrawal from the bloc.