Watch: UK PM Boris Johnson fled press conference after being booed in Luxembourg
‘Brexit is not my choice.’
On September 16, the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson pulled out of a joint press conference that he was supposed to address along with Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg. Bettel addressed the press conference by himself and took a number of potshots at Johnson and his underprepared state for the Brexit deadline of October 31.
“You can’t hold the future of people hostage for party political gains,” Bettel said, while Johnson’s podium on his side remained unoccupied. “We need more than just words...I told Mr Johnson that I hear a lot, but I don’t read a lot,” he added, highlighting the UK government’s lack of providing written Brexit-related documents.
Johnson had once called black Africans “piccaninnies with watermelon smiles”. Protestors in Luxembourg sang We are the smiling piccaninnies of Luxembourg during protests against Johnson, Business Insider reported.
Johnson said he skipped the press conference because “it wouldn’t have been fair” to the Luxembourg prime minister.
