Would be bizarre for EU to impose post-Brexit tariffs on UK: Boris Johnson

It would be bizarre for the European Union to impose tariffs on British goods flowing into the bloc after Brexit rather than agree on a standstill agreement on trade, Boris Johnson, the leading candidate to be Britain's next prime minister said.

"I think it would be very bizarre if the EU should decide on their own ... if they decided to impose tariffs on goods coming from the UK it would be ... a return to Napoleon's continental system," Johnson told LBC radio on Tuesday.

Boris Johnson, the favourite to become British prime minister, said he will seek a new Brexit deal with the European Union but if the bloc refuses his demands then he will lead the world's fifth largest economy out without agreement on Oct. 31.

The United Kingdom's three-year Brexit crisis could be about to deepen as Johnson's pledge to leave the EU with or without a deal on Halloween could provoke a standoff with the British parliament which has indicated its opposition to a no-deal exit.

No-deal means there would be no transition period so the exit would be abrupt, the nightmare scenario for many business leaders and the dream of hard Brexiteers who want a decisive split.

Seeking to turn the public discourse away from a discussion about an argument with his girlfriend, Johnson told the BBC he would pick the bits of Theresa May's "dead" Withdrawal Agreement that he likes and seek a new deal with the EU.