Boris Johnson has 'surrendered his morality', Jess Phillips tells Robert Peston

Labour MP Jess Phillips has slammed Prime Minister Boris Johnson for surrendering "his morality", after he claimed the best way to honour murdered Labour MP Jo Cox's memory was to push through Brexit.

In a scathing attack on ITV’s Peston programme, she said: “For him to use the memory of my dead friend to try and hammer home one more time his point...

"The only person who has surrendered is Boris Johnson and he has surrendered his morality.

"It just beggars belief."

Mr Johnson has repeatedly referred to the Benn Act – an act forcing the PM extend Brexit if there isn’t a deal – as a 'surrender' act, and has often come under fire for using such divisive language in the Commons.

Ms Phillips added that as a direct result of Mr Johnson's rhetoric, she has received death threats for her Remain stance.

On Twitter she revealed a letter that used Boris Johnson’s words verbatim that she would end up “dead in a ditch” if she did not deliver Brexit.

Conservative MP Dominic Grieve backed Ms Phillips’ comments and said he found it “terrifying” and accused the PM of being a "pathological liar".

“He has no moral compass of any kind at all and it was quite deliberate what he was saying was, ‘you do what I say and you won’t be subject to death threats’.

“That was the impact of that comment.”

Mr Grieve made a comparison between the "monstrous" PM and US President Donald Trump in how they have pushed populism within politics.

“We really are at a real crisis in our politics and he is in many ways, a monstrous product of it,” he said.

These comments come as Labour MP Paula Sherriff made an impassioned plea to Mr Johnson to stop using divisive language - such as 'surrender', 'traitor', and 'betrayal' - as it could invoke violence against MPs.

She cited the death of her colleague Jo Cox - a tragic result of hateful language used against politicians - to which Mr Johnson replied her accusation was “humbug".

The prime minister then added the best way to honour Jo Cox’s name was to push through Brexit.

Ms Cox was a Remainer.

Former Tory MP Amber Rudd also asserted to Peston that Mr Johnson's rhetoric has turned people against Parliament and it was "dishonest and dangerous".

She said it was “dishonest because there are legitimate differences of opinion amongst different MPs, different factions,and we need to find the common ground, and dangerous because it starts to rampup people’s behaviour against MPs and against different people.

Ms Rudd also added the prime minister dismissing the Supreme Court ruling “lacked humility” and was "wholly inappropriate".

“I would have thought the Attorney General and the Prime Minister would have approached this much more constructively by acknowledging the result of the Supreme Court judgement,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Robert Peston spoke to the Prime Minister, who said he will not resign, and has brushed off the Supreme Court ruling.

“It is not made easier for the UK negotiating side to have Parliament passing stuff that tries to take no-deal off the table,” he said.

When asked how he could both obey the law and ensure Brexit by October 31, Mr Johnson said: "If you’ll forgive me, I don’t want to tip the hand of the UK government more than Parliament has already required us to do so."

In contradiction, PM added: "We will respect the law and we will come out on October 31."