UK Edition
Boris Johnson set to defy the law rather than ask for Brexit delay
Boris Johnson would rather defy the law than ask for another Brexit delay, he has indicated, as Labour was accused of plunging Britain into a constitutional crisis.
The Prime Minister said he “will not” carry out Parliament’s instructions to seek an Article 50 extension if he fails to agree a new deal, adding he was only bound “in theory” by a law passed on Friday.
Mr Johnson also ruled out the option of resigning to avoid asking for an extension, saying he would be staying in office to deliver Brexit and defeat Jeremy Corbyn.
On Monday the Prime Minister will make a second attempt to win the backing of MPs for an election on Oct 15, in which he would hope to win a fresh mandate for leading the country out of the EU on Oct 31 with or without a deal.
But Labour, which fears it will lose an early election, is now in talks with other opposition party leaders about delaying a general election until the end of November, in the hope it can trap Mr Johnson into having to delay Brexit. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford boasted that the Prime Minister was now his “prisoner”.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said Mr Corbyn has “one last chance” on Monday to “do the right thing and order his MPs to let the public choose who they want to close this chapter of our country’s history for good”.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ms Patel says Mr Corbyn’s “disdain for democracy” is causing “bewilderment and anger” among voters, and that the Labour leader wants to delay an election because he thinks the public “can’t be trusted to decide”.
The two sides spent Friday locked in a political poker game, repeatedly upping the stakes in the hope that their opponent will fold first.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said Britain was heading for a constitutional crisis “entirely of Labour’s making” because Mr Corbyn wants to stop Brexit while denying the public a say in the matter.
In the event that Mr Johnson cannot force an election and fails to reach a deal with the EU, Mr Duncan Smith said the Prime Minister must deny the will of Parliament and challenge Labour to find a way of preventing him taking Britain out of the EU at the end of next month.
He said: “This is about Parliament versus the people. Boris Johnson is on the side of the people, who voted to leave the EU. The people are sovereign because they elect Parliament. But Parliament wants to stop the will of the people, and that is the side that Labour is on.
“Boris Johnson is fully within his rights to demand that this issue is decided by the people, and Labour will have to answer the question of why they don’t want to allow that.”
If Mr Johnson fails to carry out the will of Parliament, he risks being taken to court and, if a judge ordered him to obey Parliament, he could be held in contempt of court and even jailed if he refused.
Mr Duncan Smith said: “It’s not easy, it’s very messy, but his position has to be very simple: he is the person challenging Parliament because he is the person who will deliver the people’s vote.”
On a visit to Scotland Mr Johnson said: “The Bill that is still before Parliament would in theory mean that the government of the UK was obliged to write a letter to Brussels asking for a pointless delay to leaving the EU and I don’t think that’s what people want.”
Asked if that meant he would not seek an extension even if the Bill was passed into law (which it later was) he replied: “I will not. I don’t want a delay.”
He later wrote to Tory members saying Labour MPs had “left us no choice” but to call for an election. He added: “They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.”
Labour, the Liberal Democrats, SNP and Plaid Cymru agreed they will block Mr Johnson’s election request. The leaders discussed a plan to hold back consent for an election until after a summit of European leaders on Oct 17-19, in the hope that Mr Johnson will have to request a Brexit delay. That would mean an election in the last week of November, with Thursday, November 28 being the most likely date.
On Saturday morning Mr Johnson will cut short his first stay with the Queen at Balmoral to spend the weekend planning his next move.
He is expected to hold a meeting with Dominic Cummings, his strategy adviser, and Nikki da Costa, his legal adviser, prompting concerns from some MPs that he is excluding ministers from the decision-making process.