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October 18, 2019updated 30 Sep 2022 8:28am

Sun, Mail, Express and Times urge MPs to ‘just do it’ and back Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal

By Freddy Mayhew

The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express and have used their front pages to urge British MPs to back Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal.

Johnson secured a new withdrawal agreement with the European Union in Brussels yesterday, with MPs to vote on it in Parliament tomorrow.

In a headline message to “dithering MPS” today, The Sun said: “Get real… take the deal!”

Scroll down for today’s front pages

The paper said: “The Sun urges every MP: Back it tomorrow and get Brexit done.

“It is immeasurably better than Theresa May’s. And it will get us out of the EU in less than two weeks, as the PM has promised.

“Our divided, paralysed country is desperate for Brexit to be sorted. Boris’s deal will do it.”

The Mail used its front page headline to say that Johnson had “done his duty”, adding: “Now MPs must do theirs.”

In its leader column the paper, which backed Leave in the 2016 EU Referendum, said Parliament could finally end the “Brexit purgatory”.

“This is a deal which maintains our close friendship with Europe, but honours the referendum by allowing us to take back control of our own laws, money, borders and trade,” it said.

“The relief in Brussels will be as nothing to that of the British public if we can finally get Brexit done and all move on with our lives.”

It added: “This paper consistently supported the May deal, and we support this one.

“It contains some compromises, but we believe they are worth making if we can begin healing the divisions that have beset this country far too long.”

The Daily Express, another Brexit champion, quoted an online poll on its front page which showed 65 per cent of voters in favour of taking the deal.

“Just do it… that’s the very loud and clear message from the British public to our Parliament,” the paper’s headline read.

The online survey showed 65 per cent of voters want MPs to end their squabbling, end three years of Brexit agony and Just Do It.

The Times has also called on MPs to “just do it” and pass Johnson’s Brexit deal.

“The Prime Minister has defied his critics by agreeing a deal. Parliament should now bring a swift end to this four-year drama by voting for it tomorrow,” the paper said today.

“Mr Johnson’s deal represents a reasonable compromise by both sides and is a better outcome for Britain than Mrs May’s deal,” it said.

“Crucially the deal will allow Britain to pursue an independent trade policy, which Leavers see as one of the main benefits of Brexit but which would have been constrained under Mrs May’s deal.”

But not all were supportive of Johnson’s new deal. The Mirror warned against backing it out of frustration.

“We understand people’s frustration and the wish to see the back of Brexit. But just because there is an appetite to get it sorted does not mean it should be done at any price,” the paper said.

“This is worse than Theresa May’s deal and worse than what we have at present. The only thing in its favour is it is better than a no-deal.

“Tomorrow MPs must decide what is best for the country, not what is best for the Conservative Party and their rich backers.”

The Telegraph, who employed Johnson as a columnist throughout his campaign to become the next UK Prime Minister, said his new deal “isn’t 100 per cent perfect”.

“But,” it added, “the Prime Minister has had to negotiate with a minority government, a Remainer Parliament and with the Benn Act hanging over his head – so what he got, against the odds, is near miraculous.

“It is time for his party to rally around him. It is time for MPs to put aside pride and partisanship, compromise where necessary and deliver the Brexit they promised at the last election.”

Today’s newspaper front pages:

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