Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons in London, Britain September 4, 2019.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised on Thursday he would never delay Britain's exit from the European Union, due on Oct. 31, saying he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than do so.

After wrestling control of the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, an alliance of opposition parties and rebels expelled from the Conservative Party voted to force him to seek a three-month delay to Brexit rather than leaving without a deal on Oct. 31, the date now set in law.

Asked after Thursday's speech to police cadets in Wakefield whether he would ask for such a delay he said: "I'd rather be dead in a ditch."

"It achieves absolutely nothing. What on earth is the point of further delay," he added.

As the United Kingdom spins towards an election, Brexit remains up in the air more than three years after Britons voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum. Options range from a turbulent 'no-deal' exit to abandoning the whole endeavor.

Ahead of the speech in Wakefield, northern England, where Johnson effectively began an informal election campaign, his own brother, Jo Johnson, resigned as a junior business minister and said he was stepping down as a lawmaker for their Conservative Party.

Since taking office in July, Boris Johnson has tried to corral the Conservative Party, which is openly fighting over Brexit, behind his strategy of leaving the European Union on Oct. 31 with or without a deal.

On Tuesday, he expelled 21 Conservative lawmakers from the party for failing to back his strategy, including Winston Churchill's grandson and two former finance ministers.

Behind the sound and the fury of the immediate crisis, an election now beckons for a polarized country.

The main choices on offer are Johnson's insistence on leaving the EU on Oct. 31, come what may, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left socialist vision, coupled with a promise of a fresh referendum with an option to stay in the EU.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who manages government business in the House of Commons, said parliament would be asked again on Monday, after the blocking bill becomes law, to approve a snap election. On Wednesday, lawmakers rejected Johnson's request for an Oct. 15 poll.

The Brexit crisis has for three years overshadowed European Union affairs, eroded Britain's reputation as a stable pillar of the West and seen the sterling lunge back and forth in line with the probability of a 'no-deal' exit.

Asked if Brexit would happen on Oct. 31, Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings, a focus of many departing Conservative lawmakers' grievances, told Reuters: "Trust the people."

Former prime minister John Major called on Johnson to sack "political anarchist" Cummings, in a speech on Thursday.