BORIS JOHNSON, the frontrunner to be Britain’s next prime minister, promised Monday to lead the country out of the European Union on Oct. 31 with or without an exit deal, launching his leadership bid in a campaign video.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to resign Friday having failed to deliver Brexit on time, leaving behind her a divided nation and parliament with no consensus on the way ahead for the world’s fifth largest economy.

Johnson, a former foreign minister who resigned in protest at May’s handling of Brexit, is the bookmakers’ favorite to win a crowded contest and take over the running of the country at its most important strategic juncture in decades.

“If I get in we’ll come out, deal or no deal, on Oct. 31,” he was seen telling a member of the public in a campaign video released on Twitter.

The video, featuring clips of Johnson talking to voters and a monologue delivered straight to camera, is his first real salvo in the leadership battle which so far has 13 contenders and could take two months to determine the winner. “Cut some taxes and you get more money in,” he is telling another member of the public, while also arguing for more investment in education, infrastructure and health care.

(CGTN)