Boris Johnson has suggested he will try and deliver Brexit by mid-January if he wins the general election on December 12.
The prime minister also rejected Donald Trump’s advice to drop his deal and form a Leave alliance with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
As ITV announced it would host a head-to-head debate between Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn on November 19, the PM insisted he would be able to rush his withdrawal agreement through the Commons within weeks and get Brexit “over the line by... the middle of January”.
Johnson will also hope that the European Parliament agrees a similarly rapid timetable so he can get the deal ratified by the EU and deliver Brexit as soon as possible.
Johnson also refused to engage with Trump’s insistence that a UK-US trade deal was impossible under the terms of his deal.
Asked about the president’s comments, the PM told BBC News: “Well, I don’t wish to comment on what he may or may not have... what I’m telling you is what everybody can see from the terms of the deal that we did, which is a great deal, not just for business and for families but it gives this country certainty.
“It means that if we can get it over line by, with this election, in the middle of January, then we’ll have it done.”
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Johnson also urged Leave voters to back the Tories over the Brexit Party.
“I will be very, very clear that voting for any other party than this government, this Conservative government, this One Nation Conservative government is basically tantamount to putting Jeremy Corbyn in.”
And he refused to rule out increasing private provision in the NHS, while insisting it would always remain free at the point of use.
Corbyn has launched his election campaign with repeated attacks claiming that Johnson would open the NHS up to US corporations by doing a trade deal with Trump.
Johnson insisted “there’s certainly no question of negotiating on the NHS” with the US.
But asked by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg to “rule out expanding the use of the private sector in the health service”, he replied: “We are putting £34bn into the NHS – that is taxpayers’ money.
“And we are absolutely determined to continue to increase taxpayers’ money.
“And what I will tell you, what I will tell you, well of course there are dentists and optometrists and so on who are providers to the NHS, of course, that’s how it works.
“But we are, we believe, I believe passionately in an NHS free at the point of use for everybody in this country.”
The Liberal Democrats meanwhile were furious that their leader Jo Swinson has been frozen out of the TV debate.
A source said: ’This is a cosy stitch up between the two establishment party leaders to try to shut out the woman leader of the strongest party of Remain.
“They’re running scared, but we aren’t going to let them get away.”