Crawling to freedom? Boris Johnson compares Brexit to tunnel escape from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’

With hours remaining to finally secure a deal with Brussels, Boris Johnson has apparently compared British efforts to negotiate Brexit to the infamous prison escape scene in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.

The dramatic comparison was reported by the Telegraph’s deputy political editor Anna Mikhailova, who tweeted that she had heard it from a source in the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee.

Mikhailova’s tweet was soon followed by a tweet from BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley, who wrote that he had also been told the PM “compared the tunnel in Brussels to the tunnel from the Shawshank Redemption.”

The analogy comes after Britain entered days of what were dubbed intensive “tunnel” negotiations with the EU to secure a deal before October 19, which would allow Johnson to avoid requesting a new Brexit extension.

Fans of the movie will recall that protagonist Andy Dufresne (Britain?) is sentenced to life in prison (the EU?) for murdering his wife and her lover — a crime he did not commit. One stormy night, Dufresne eventually breaks free from the confines of the prison through a sewage pipe which he manages to burst open with a rock.

“Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of sh*t-smelling foulness I can't even imagine,” narrates Morgan Freeman’s character — perhaps providing some insight into Johnson’s mindset as the “tunnel” negotiations continue.

It appears Johnson may also be a fan of the British political comedy ‘The Thick of It’, in which Malcolm Tucker, the fictional director of communications for 10 Downing Street, compares a political crisis to the classic movie.

“This is like the Shawshank Redemption, right. Only there's more tunneling through sh*t, and no f*cking redemption,” he says.

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