Jacob Rees-Mogg admits we may not Brexit on October 31st

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and Peter Bone struggle to make sense of Brexit . Photograph: Getty Images. - Credit: Getty Images

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted that there is no certainity that Britain will leave the EU on October 31st – despite insistence from the new Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson.

Arch-Brexiteer Rees-Mogg, who now sits within Johnson’s cabinet, said he was “as confident as anybody can be” that the prime minister’s pledge to leave on October 31st “do or die” would be met.

But the leader of the House of Commons refused to rule out another delay as we have witnessed previously with the March 29th deadline.

Asked if he was “100% confident” about the October 31st deadline by talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, he said: “It is the law that we leave and the only means of stopping that without a change of the law or a vote of confidence, is if the prime minister himself decides to change the date, and I’m absolutely confident that will not happen.”

But he admitted the actions of parliament could still prevent it from happening.

“Can I guarantee that there won’t be a vote of confidence? No, of course I can’t. Nobody can ever do that, but it seems highly unlikely.”

However, he added: “All the law that we need to leave on October 31 is in place, so there’s no more legislation needed.”

Rees-Mogg again blamed “well-known Remainers” in parliament who “believe that their views are more important than the 17.4 million people who voted in the referendum to leave the European Union.”