Lora Smith LONDON, September 6 -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday (Sept 6) he was not willing to contemplate resigning. "I'll go to Brussels, I'll get a deal and we'll make sure we come out on October 31 - that's what we've got to do," Johnson told Sky News during a visit to Scotland. When asked if he would resign if he could not deliver that, he said: "That is not a hypothesis I'm willing to contemplate." Johnson is pushing for an election on Oct 15, two weeks before the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union, though opposition parties say they want a no-deal Brexit ruled out before they will agree to an election date. In a sign of how far Brexit has distorted British politics, Johnson's Conservatives expelled 21 rebels on Tuesday - including the grandson of Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill and two former finance ministers - for seeking to block any exit from the EU without a deal. On Friday, Johnson said the rebels' expulsion "grieved me deeply". "These are friends of mine. I worked with them for many years. But we have to get Brexit done and we were being very clear about the risks we're running now in snarling up the process of leaving the EU in Parliament," he said. "And yes of course I am going to reach out to those colleagues and have been reaching out to them, try and find ways of building bridges but I have got to be clear - we must get Brexit done." Meanwhile, British opposition parties were discussing on Friday how to respond to Johnson's bid to call a snap election, after the Prime Minister said he would rather die in a ditch than delay the planned Oct 31 departure from the EU. As the United Kingdom spins towards an election, Brexit remains up in the air more than three years after Britons voted to leave the bloc in a 2016 referendum. Options range from a turbulent "no-deal" exit to abandoning the whole endeavor. British lawmakers will on Monday hold another vote on a motion on whether to hold an early election, probably in mid-October, just over two weeks before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on Oct 31. But opposition parties, including the Labour Party, want to ensure that an election does not allow Johnson to lead the United Kingdom out of the EU without a deal. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn will hold a conference call with other opposition parties on Friday, a Labour spokesman said. Johnson on Thursday said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than delay Brexit. "We need to be absolutely sure that we are not going to end up in a situation where the general election is used as a distraction whilst they (the government) by some cunning wheeze bounce us out of the European Union without a deal," Emily Thornberry, Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, said. The opposition Scottish National Party (SNP) will only agree a date for an election when it is sure the threat of a no-deal exit has been averted, its leader in the Westminster Parliament said. "We will choose the timing of when an election comes. I want to remove Boris Johnson as prime minister, but we need to make sure we don't leave the European Union on a no-deal basis, that's the first priority," the SNP's Ian Blackford said. An SNP source said: "The SNP is ready for an election, but we will not be played by Boris Johnson." "We are considering all options and discussing with all parties the best way to prevent a disastrous no-deal Brexit and get rid of this shambolic (Conservative) government as soon as possible," the source added.
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