Boris Johnson won’t resign if suspension ruled illegal

Boris Johnson insists he won’t resign if the Supreme Court finds he misled the Queen.

Boris Johnson won’t resign even if the Supreme Court finds against him. Picture: AP.

Boris Johnson has insisted that he will not resign if he is found to have misled the Queen over his purpose in asking her to approve the five-week suspension of parliament.

The prime minister was defiant on the eve of Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling on claims that the prorogation was unlawful because the prime minister did not disclose his real reasons.

Mr Johnson again denied that when he asked the monarch to suspend parliament for more than a month it was to limit its ability to influence the Brexit outcome as he travelled to New York.

He repeated the government’s case that the suspension was necessary to facilitate a new parliamentary session. Asked whether he would consider resigning if he loses, Mr Johnson said: “I will wait and see what the court decides. The reasons for wanting a Queen’s Speech are very good.”

Pressed to say if he believed his position would be untenable if the court in effect decided that he had misled the monarch he added: “No, I think the reasons for wanting a Queen’s Speech are extremely good. Parliament will have bags of time to scrutinise the deal I hope to do. We must have a Queen’s Speech. We have a big domestic agenda. We have to get on with tackling the priorities of the British people. It is absolutely absurd to be totally fixated on Brexit.

“When it comes to parliamentary scrutiny, what are we losing? Four or five days of parliamentary scrutiny when they’ve had three years to discuss these issues and will be able to come back and discuss Brexit after the European Council on October 17. Donnez-moi un break is my message to those who say there will be no parliamentary scrutiny. It is absolute nonsense.”

Mr Johnson has played down expectations of a breakthrough on Brexit at this week’s UN general assembly at which he is meeting five EU leaders and the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk. He called on the EU to find the “political will” to agree an alternative to the Northern Ireland backstop. Talks are stuck over the scope of regulatory alignment.

Mr Johnson said that it was “encouraging” that EU leaders were prepared to say they did not have “attachments” to the backstop as it was interest in an all-Ireland zone for agri-food products that would remove the need for checks on livestock.

“However, there are still gaps and still difficulties. We can see the way,” he said. “What we are working for is a solution that enables the UK and the EU, while respecting the principles of the single market, to allow for an open border to respect the achievement of the peace process but also allow the whole of the UK to come out of the EU. There is a way to do that. I think colleagues around the table in Brussels can see how we might do that, what it will take is political will.”

Speaking before a meeting with Mr Johnson on Tuesday, the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said that Dublin was prepared to look at alternatives to the backstop as long as they were “legally binding”.

He said that the proposals tabled by the government last week fell “far short” of that demand. “If the United Kingdom can come up with alternative arrangements that meet those objectives that are legally binding, well, we’re willing to accept those and examine those, but so far comes very far short of that,” he said.

Meanwhile in Berlin Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator, described Mr Johnson’s solution for replacing the Irish backstop as “unacceptable”, warning the UK government that its position had to change for there to be any success.

Mr Johnson has made a series of funding commitments to smooth his debut at the annual meeting of world leaders at New York. Commitments to be announced to day will include £515 million more aid to improve girls’ education and £30 million for humanitarian relief for Venezuela.

The Times