UK will leave EU by January 31 at the latest: PM Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that Britain would leave the European Union by Jan. 31 at the latest if his Conservative Party wins a majority in the election in two weeks time.

“If we can get a working majority then we will come on Jan. 31 at the absolute latest,” Johnson told LBC radio.

He also repeated his message that he saw no reason why Britain would need to extend the transition period after Brexit beyond the end of 2020.

Asked if he would rather be prime minister or have Britain leave the EU, he replied: “I would rather get us out of the EU. I can tell you that.”

Britain has been haggling over the nation’s withdrawal from the European Union, the process known as Brexit, since the referendum in 2016. The badly divided government has been in crisis, unable to agree on an approach to perhaps the country’s biggest peacetime decision in decades. 

The struggle has already cost one prime minister, Theresa May, her job. She announced in late May that she would resign after failing to come up with a plan that satisfied her party, her coalition partners and officials in Brussels, the seat of the European Union.

The task then fell to her successor, Boris Johnson. The Conservative Party chose Johnson, a brash proponent of withdrawal, to succeed Prime Minister May and take control of the Brexit process.

It has not gone well.