Tory MP reminded that Boris Johnson said there’s ‘zero chance’ of no deal live on air | indy100

A Tory MP was reminded of the time Boris Johnson said there was “zero chance” the UK would leave the EU without a deal live on air.

Jo Coburn, who hosts BBC Politics Live, asked Bim Afolami:

“It’s something, isn’t it, to be 22 days away from the end of the transition period on December 31st and the chances of no deal being rather high. And that’s despite Boris Johnson saying there was zero chance of no deal with the EU during the election campaign last year. It’s not zero is it?”

Afolami tried to defend the prime minister by claiming he was talking about the withdrawal agreement, but Coburn interrupted him by saying:

“No. He was saying there was zero chance of no trade deal. He talked about the withdrawal agreement beforehand, but then he said because we’ve been successful in striking that withdrawal agreement there is zero chance of us leaving at the end of the transition period without a deal.”

Johnson said this in an interview with the BBC in November last year.

The end of the Brexit transition period is now less than three weeks away, but no deal has been reached. The prime minister has admitted that there’s a “strong possibility” that this will remain the case and that “now is the time” for people to prepare for that outcome.

This is in spite of Johnson repeatedly claiming to have an oven-ready Brexit deal ahead of the 2019 general election.

He has since tried to “rip up” part of his initial agreement with the EU through the Internal Markets Bill.

No deal Brexit isn’t yet a complete certainty. But the chances of it happening are a lot higher than zero per cent.