Passing Brexit deadline unleashes Twitter storm

Brexiteers suffer Halloween haunting as predictions for EU departure unravel

Boris Johnson's failure to take the UK out of the EU on October 31 was ridiculed on social media. EPA

Social media users in the UK mocked the passing of the Boris Johnson’s “do or die” deadline to leave the European Union on Thursday.

Hashtags like #BritainHasExploded, #BrexitDay and #Happy Brexit were circulated in tens of thousands of posts. Many users mocked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his commitment to take the UK out of the EU on or before October 31 failed.

The British premier had said he would rather “die in a ditch” than face a further Brexit delay.

But the prime minister’s words came back to haunt him on Halloween.

“I seem to remember something about being dead in a ditch,” pondered one user.

Other users highlighted comments made by Mark Francois, Conservative MP and deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group.

Mr Francois said in a television appearance: “If we don’t leave on the 31st of October, this country will explode.”

But Twitter users in the UK seized on his prediction and roundly ridiculed it, with many ironically posting images of minor inconveniences or everyday occurrences as evidence for the elusive societal collapse.

One user sarcastically blamed the late delivery of morning post on the prophesied explosion.

The prediction that there would be riots if Britain failed to leave Europe, circulated by several MPs including James Cleverley, was also the subject of mockery.

The Twitter storm came as a survey showed that roughly half of those who voted to leave in the 2016 referendum feel “betrayed” by Britain’s failure to take the UK out of the bloc on Thursday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, launching the party’s election campaign on Thursday, said the prime minister “has failed,” to deliver Brexit on time.

“That failure is his alone,” he added.