Johnson
faces new constitutional crisis as Brexit talks grind to a halt
It appears
increasingly unlikely PM will hit deadline for deal laid down in Benn act
Heather
Stewart, Severin Carrell, Daniel Boffey and Lisa O'Carroll
Fri 4 Oct
2019 19.28 BSTLast modified on Fri 4 Oct 2019 23.55 BST
Boris
Johnson is careering towards a fresh constitutional crisis, after insisting
there will be “no delay” to Brexit just hours after government lawyers promised
in a court in Scotland that he would obey the law and request an extension if
he failed to clinch a deal within a fortnight.
The prime
minister tweeted that there must be “new deal or no deal – but no delay”,
echoing the words he used in his party conference speech in Manchester on
Wednesday.
Boris
Johnson
✔
@BorisJohnson
New deal or
no deal - but no delay. #GetBrexitDone #LeaveOct31 🇬🇧
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5:49 PM -
Oct 4, 2019
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The
dramatic scenes in court came as Brexit negotiations all but ground to a halt
after the EU rebuffed UK requests for them to intensify over the weekend. It
now appears increasingly likely Johnson will fail to hit the deadline for a
deal laid down in what he calls the “surrender act”.
EU sources
said there remained considerable doubt as to whether there was any basis for
such discussions, given Johnson’s insistence on there being a customs border on
the island of Ireland.
Meanwhile
Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, was told by a series of senior
figures in Belfast that the “Stormont lock” envisaged in the proposal is
unworkable, setting up a race against time to rework that aspect of the plan in
time for the 17 October European council meeting.
The
European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act, drawn up by rebel MPs and passed by
parliament, states that if Westminster does not agree to a Brexit deal by 19
October, the prime minister has to write to the EU seeking an extension to
article 50 until 31 January.
In extracts
of legal papers submitted by the government to the court of session in
Edinburgh, that emerged on Friday in a case brought by anti-Brexit campaigners,
the government appeared to accept for the first time that it would have to make
the request.
The papers,
which the government declined to publish in full, stated that the prime
minister accepts “he is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate
its purpose or the purpose of its provisions. Thus he cannot act so as to
prevent the letter requesting the specified extension in the act from being
sent.”
Campaigners
brought the legal action to force Johnson to comply with the requirements of
the act, also known as the Benn Act, after a series of suggestions from Downing
Street sources that Johnson believes he has found a loophole in the law that
will allow him to leave the EU on 31 October regardless.
The UK
government refused to release copies of its submissions in this case to the
media despite repeated requests by the Guardian, the BBC and other news
organisations.
Key
excerpts of its pledge were read out instead by Aidan O’Neill QC, the lawyer
for the green energy millionaire Dale Vince, the SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC, and
the lawyer and anti-Brexit campaigner Jolyon Maugham QC.
O’Neill
told Lord Pentland, the judge hearing the case, that Johnson had repeatedly
contradicted that position, including in the Commons on Wednesday, by insisting
the UK would leave on 31 October “come what may”.
As a
result, O’Neill said, the court still needed to issue legally binding orders to
force Johnson to comply with the Benn Act in an interdict, or injunction. If
the prime minister refused to do so, O’Neill could return to court to ask for
Johnson to be fined or jailed, he added. Pentland is due to give his ruling on
Monday.
No 10
declined to comment. Yet senior government figures, including some cabinet
ministers, continue to insist privately that while they will obey the law as
narrowly interpreted, they can still avoid any delay to Brexit.
An attempt
to circumvent the law would almost certainly result in another bitter court
battle for the government – but Johnson’s allies hope he could thereby present
himself as the man trying to “get Brexit done” in the face of obstructionist
remainers.
With a
Brexit delay forced on him, Johnson could then fight a general election on a
platform of a hard Brexit.
Senior
government insiders suggest that to confront the challenge from the Brexit
party, the Conservatives would have to promise to strike an even tougher
bargain than the one the prime minister is currently offering to Brussels.
The
backbench rebels who drew up the Benn bill hoped to avert a no-deal Brexit; but
Johnson has angrily accused them of undermining the government’s negotiating
position.
In Brussels
on Friday, a European commission spokeswoman said: “We have completed
discussions with the UK for today. We gave our initial reaction to the UK’s
proposals and asked many questions on the legal text.
“We will
meet again on Monday to give the UK another opportunity to present its
proposals in detail.” The spokeswoman added that the proposals did not “provide
a basis for concluding an agreement”.
A senior EU
diplomat said: “If we held talks at the weekend, it would look like these were
proper negotiations. The truth is we’re still a long way from that. We need to
work out quickly whether there is the opportunity to close that gap.”
But the
Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, speaking after a meeting in Belfast
with the Northern Ireland secretary, struck a more upbeat note, saying a deal
was “not mission impossible”.
“I believe
it is possible to change that [approach including the old backstop] but we have
to make sure that while we change the approach the outcome has got to be the
same,” he said, adding that he believed “it’s possible to do that with goodwill
and energy on all sides” next week.
But Smith
was told by several parties at the meeting that the proposal, backed by the
DUP, to give the devolved government the final say on Brexit arrangements in
the region after Brexit was a non-starter.
One source
with knowledge of the meeting said: “The message has gone back from all
quarters in Northern Ireland from Sinn Féin to the Traditional Unionist Voice
that this is unworkable and it will destabilise the institutions and the Good
Friday agreement and is not plausible – and in light of that, if he is serious
about getting a deal, he has to come back with something more realistic.”
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