Boris Johnson has declined to apologise for his language about Jo Cox and ducked a Commons debate on inflammatory rhetoric, instead attending a meeting of Tory MPs to say he will continue to use the phrase “surrender bill” to refer to the act passed to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
Johnson spoke at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs yesterday morning after being branded a disgrace for dismissing concerns about his inflammatory language in light of Cox’s murder by a far-right extremist.
In the Commons on Wednesday, he told one MP that her concerns about aggressive language fuelling violence were “humbug” and another that the best way to honour Cox was to “get Brexit done”.
The prime minister addressed some of the criticism, saying there was a need to moderate violent language on all sides of the debate. But he doubled down on his language about the Benn Act to stop a no-deal Brexit, which he dubs the “surrender bill”, in spite of criticism that this paints his opponents in parliament as traitors guilty of a betrayal.
Johnson was met with shouts of “Will you apologise, prime minister?” from journalists as he left the meeting, but he walked away without commenting.
His senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, was shortly afterwards confronted on the parliamentary estate by the Labour MP Karl Turner, who said MPs including himself had received more death threats. 
Cummings responded: “Well, vote for a deal then.”
Tory MPs said the mood of Johnson’s meeting had been “largely supportive” but others sighed or raised their eyebrows when asked how he had performed.
Paul Scully, the deputy chairman of the Conservative party, said the prime minister acknowledged there had been “a lot of words said, a lot of attacks on female MPs and on members of the families of female politicians.
“But I think there’s also a sense of conflation of those in the opposition, wrapping that up with the robust debate and the acknowledgement that the surrender act is a surrender act because it is literally surrendering power to the EU.” He added: “At the end of the day the surrender act is literally a backbench MP who has written a letter to give to the UK prime minister, which gives the EU permission to tell us when we can leave the EU. By any dictionary definition this surrenders power to the EU.”
As Johnson addressed his backbenchers, the Labour MP Jess Phillips brought an urgent question to the Commons on the subject of inflammatory language. Rather than appearing himself, Johnson sent the junior minister Kevin Foster, who is responsible for the constitution.
Jeremy Corbyn said Johnson “has not respected this house by attending today”.
“The prime minister’s language and demeanour on Wednesday was nothing short of disgraceful,” the Labour leader said. “Three years ago our colleague Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right activist shouting: ‘Britain First. This is for Britain.’
“The language that politicians use matters – it has real consequences. To dismiss concerns from honourable members about the death threats they receive, and to dismiss concerns that the language used by the prime minister is being repeated in those death threats, is reprehensible.”
He accused Johnson of having “sought to entrench divisions” instead of calming them down. “Not only should the prime minister comply with the law, he should come to this house and apologise for his conduct on Wednesday, which fell below the standards expected by the people of this country,” he said.
Phillips asked for Johnson and his advisers to meet her and Cox’s family so they could explain their grief and worries about inflammatory language in politics.
“The use of language on Wednesday and over the past few weeks such as the surrender bill, such as invoking the war, such as betrayal and treachery, it has clearly been tested, and workshopped and worked up and entirely designed to inflame hatred and division,” she said.