(Bloomberg) -- Leadership contender Jeremy Hunt refused to guarantee the U.K. will leave the European Union before Christmas, a stance likely to further undermine his diminishing chances of becoming prime minister.
“I'm not going to give you those commitments,” Hunt said in a televised BBC interview Friday when asked if he could guarantee he'd get Brexit done by the end of the year. “Prime ministers should only make promises they know they can deliver.”
In contrast to Hunt, Boris Johnson, his rival for the top job, has pledged to meet the Oct. 31 deadline for Brexit “do or die,” a position that surveys show is popular among the 180,000 grassroots Conservative Party members who are voting for the next leader.
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Hunt told the BBC that Parliament may opt to rule out a no-deal Brexit, complicating any commitments around the fall deadline. “If we get a deal, it will be on or around 31st October but I can't control what Parliament does and that's why I'm being honest with people,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Mayes in London at jmayes9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny
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