Would-be UK prime ministers firm up Brexit positions

The two men vying to become the United Kingdom's next prime minister, and the leader of the nation's ruling Conservative Party, have developed clear differences on how Britain's pending exit from the European Union should be managed.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, a former UK foreign secretary and its incumbent, are the last two candidates in a grueling war of attrition that pared down a large field of would-be PMs. The Conservative Party's 160,000 members will now choose between them in a postal ballot that should deliver a result toward the end of July.

The UK's departure from the EU, which was called for by British voters three years ago in a closely contested referendum, has been the single biggest issue in the nation ever since and will likely greatly influence whether party members vote for Hunt or Johnson.

Both contenders want to renegotiate the divorce deal that outgoing PM Theresa May thrashed out with the EU that the British Parliament subsequently rejected repeatedly.

The issue now separates the final two, with Johnson saying the UK must leave the EU on the current Oct 31 deadline with or without a deal and Hunt saying the nation should not crash out on an arbitrary date if there is any chance of renegotiating May's deal.

Hunt said any attempt to drag the UK out of the EU without a deal would likely trigger a general election that the Conservatives could lose.

In an interview with Talk Radio, Johnson countered by saying he will take the UK out on Oct 31 "come what may, do or die" because failing to leave then would mean another extension of the UK's membership.

"The minute you start flirting with an extension, you undermine your negotiating leverage," he said. "There is nothing stopping us getting a deal by October, if there's the political will."

But Hunt told the BBC: "Both Boris and I want to change that deal. The judgment is, who is the person we trust as PM to go to Brussels and bring back that deal?"

Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary who is a firm Johnson supporter, said on Radio 4's Today program that Hunt's stance shows "weakness" and "naivety" and that a general election could only be caused with the collusion of some Conservative Party MPs, something he said that will not happen.

Johnson, meanwhile, has claimed provisions under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a legal framework that manages the rules of international commerce, could let the UK avoid tariffs for as long as a decade.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, a Hunt supporter, said the EU would have to agree to such an arrangement and it has said it will not.

The Telegraph reported on Wednesday that Johnson has recruited former Conservative Party leader and staunch Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith to manage his campaign after a slew of negative stories about Johnson having allegedly had an unseemly row with his girlfriend on Friday that apparently prompted neighbors to call police.