(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson mined the English language yet again to find a novel way to insult the Labour opposition ahead in U.K. opinion polls: “Supine invertebrate protoplasmic jellies,” resurrecting a term he used in 2013.
The reason? For not agreeing with him on the Brexit divorce bill.
Under attack for flip-flopping on Brexit and the need for Britain to keep its financial commitments to the European Union, the foreign secretary said that he had been misquoted.
His famous quote about how the EU could “go whistle” if it expects the U.K. to pay a bill was -- Johnson explained -- a response to a figure being floated of 100 billion euros ($117 billion). He then defied Labour lawmakers to disagree with him.
“Now, the figure I heard was 100 billion - is that side of the House, would they cough up a hundred? Would you? Would you? I think they would, I think they would, the supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies. They would.”
Back in April he called the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a “mutton-headed old mugwump” who could never win an election. In fact, Corbyn did so well that the Tories lost their parliamentary majority in the June snap vote.
To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in London at fjackson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net, Eddie Buckle, Alex Morales
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