Boris Johnson has blamed his opposition Labour rival for Britain's failure to leave the European Union today and promised to deliver Brexit by January - if he wins the upcoming election.
The country's prime minister is riding high in opinion polls going into the 12 December vote that will be Britain's third in four years.
But he risks a backlash over his unkept "do or die" promise to take Britain out by 31 October and he again set himself up for another potential fall by promising to meet the next deadline.
The Conservative leader, who wants no more delays to the process, cast himself as a victim of parliamentary opposition parties that refused to follow the wishes of UK voters who chose to leave Europe in the knife-edge 2016 referendum.
"After three-and-a-half years, it was perfectly obvious to me that this parliament is just not going to vote Brexit through," Mr Johnson said during a campaign stop at a hospital.
"If you vote for us and we get our programme through, which we will - as a I say, it's oven-ready, it's there to go - we can be out, at the absolute latest, by January next year."
Pro-EU campaigners and business executives breathed a sigh of relief that Britain had been given a stay of execution to avoid a Halloween Brexit nightmare that could have seen it crash out of the bloc after 46 years without a plan.
Mr Johnson confounded expectations by securing a revised EU divorce deal that Brussels had long refused to touch.
But he was forced to follow through on parliamentary orders and ask EU leaders for more time after Labour mustered enough cross-party support to extend parliamentary debates and delay a final vote.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would throw out Mr Johnson's plan and get Brexit "sorted" within the first six months of grabbing power by negotiating more EU-friendly separation terms.
He would then put it up for a vote against the option of simply staying the 27-nation bloc.
"We'll let the people decide whether to leave with a sensible deal or remain. It really isn't that complicated," Mr Corbyn told a party rally at a London art centre.
"And we, the Labour government, will carry out whatever the people decide."
But the veteran socialist avoided answering a direct question on which way he himself would vote.
"It's not about me, it's not any individual on this platform, it's not a presidential election," Mr Corbyn said.
Mr Corbyn has been accused of seeking to shift the debate onto more domestic subjects such as health and social care to avoid scrutiny of his own vague position on Europe.
He has said in the past that he voted to leave in 2016. But he has also spent much of his political career attacking Brussels as a cauldron of crony capitalism.
Mr Corbyn promised to push the most "radical" agenda Britain has ever seen. He pledged to put "wealth and power in the hands of the many" and eliminate everything from poverty to university tuition fees.
"Together we can pull down the corrupt system to build a genuine government that cares for all," he said.
Boris Johnson has spent months promising we'd leave the EU today. The failure to do so is his and his alone. Labour will get Brexit sorted by giving the people the final say within six months with the choice of a credible leave deal or remain. And we'll carry out what you decide.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 31, 2019
Business leaders warn that Labour's plan to reimpose state ownership over railways and other major industries would cost at least £196 billion (€228bn).
But a National Institute of Economic and Social Research study suggested yesterday that Mr Johnson's Brexit deal could leave Britain £70bn worse off in ten years.
Elsewhere, US President Donald Trump has said Mr Corbyn would be "so bad" for the UK while hailing Mr Johnson as "the exact right guy for the times".
Mr Trump also said if Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage teamed up with Mr Johnson they would be an "unstoppable force".
In a radio interview with Mr Farage on LBC, Mr Trump also criticised the prime minister's Brexit deal, claiming it hinders trade with the US.
He said he had discussed with Mr Johnson the new agreement brokered with Brussels.
World Exclusive: President @realDonaldTrump Completely Dismissed Concerns About US Interfering In NHS#TrumpOnLBC | @Nigel_Farage pic.twitter.com/AxwtqxrzCd
— LBC (@LBC) October 31, 2019
Mr Corbyn later tweeted: "Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain's election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.
"It was Trump who said in June the NHS is 'on the table'. And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won't get their hands on it. Our NHS is not for sale."
Meanwhile, almost 60 members of the 650-seat lower House of Commons have announced they will not stand in the coming election.
The number has raised eyebrows because, while dozens usually leave before general election, many came from the more moderate and wing of Mr Johnson's party.
Senior cabinet minister Nicky Morgan was one of several to at least partly link her decision to the "abuse" MPs receive from the public.
Divisions over Brexit have seen sometimes toxic rhetoric on all sides. Death threats against MPs and attacks on social media have risen in recent years.
Ms Morgan described the "clear impact on my family and the other sacrifices involved in, and the abuse for, doing the job of a modern MP".
Long-standing Conservative MP Caroline Spelman warned of a "wild west of internet abuse" as she stepped down.
