Brexit vote: Defiant Johnson tells EU leaders to ignore parliament over delay

Boris Johnson launches audacious bid to thwart MPs who voted to delay Brexit.

Boris Johnson opened a new front in his battle for Brexit, launching an audacious bid to thwart MPs who voted to delay Britain’s departure from the EU during a historic showdown in parliament on Saturday.

The prime minister sent three different letters to EU leaders last night in a bid to circumvent a plot by “Brexit wreckers” to extend the Halloween deadline, branding it “deeply corrosive”.

In the first Saturday sitting of parliament since the Falklands conflict 37 years ago, MPs voted by 322 to 306 to withhold support for Johnson’s Brexit deal until the withdrawal bill that would make it law has been approved. This triggered the Benn Act, which requires the prime minister to send a letter to Brussels requesting an extension, ruling out any no deal.

In an uncompromising response, Johnson last on Saturday refused to sign the letter and sent EU leaders a photocopy of the text instead. He then phoned key powerbrokers to make clear they should ignore parliament’s request for more time.

No 10 officials expressed hope that EU leaders could take until an emergency summit on October 28 to even respond - buying Johnson crucial time to pass the deal.

The letter, sent in hard copy and by email, to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, was accompanied by a covering note from Sir Tim Barrow, Britain’s ambassador to the EU explaining that the letter was being sent only so the government could comply with the law.

Following his defeat, Johnson told MPs: “I will not negotiate a delay with the EU. And neither does the law compel me to do so.”

In an email to MPs he added: “It is quite possible that our friends in the European Union will reject parliament’s request for further delay or not take a decision quickly.”

EU Council President Donald Tusk confirmed he had received the request of an extension.

“The extension request has just arrived. I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react,” he tweeted.

The extension request has just arrived. I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react. #Brexit

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) October 19, 2019

In his calls with fellow leaders, a senior source said Johnson told them: “This is parliament’s letter. It is not my letter. Parliament is asking for a delay. I’m not asking for a delay.”

Johnson then sent a letter to European leaders, carefully written by government lawyers. In it he describes a Brexit delay as “deeply corrosive” and says the UK will continue to ratify the deal and the EU should do the same, adding that further delay would “damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners”.

After speaking to Johnson, the French president Emmanuel Macron rebuked parliament for failing to deliver a meaningful vote on the deal. “A further delay is not in anyone’s interest,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement. “A deal has been approved and it is now up to the British parliament to say if it approves or rejects it. There should be a vote on the substance of it.”

Johnson also spoke to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Tusk.

Johnson’s “three letters” gambit came after a day of high drama, farce and acrimony in Westminster, where MPs debated Brexit for five hours while hundreds of thousands of activists who want a second referendum protested outside.

On Monday Johnson will seek to hold a new meaningful vote to secure approval for his Brexit deal

amid signs that he can secure a majority.

But that plan could be thwarted by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, who seems likely to ban a vote on the grounds that the government tabled the same motion on Saturday.

Either way, the government will introduce the withdrawal agreement bill on Tuesday, making that a key trial of strength over the deal.

The government will also step up no-deal preparations and will slow them down only if MPs back the deal.

A letter written by Prime Minister Boris Johnson advising colleagues advising that he will tell the EU that "further delay is not a solution".

The attempt to circumvent the Benn Act will lead to a legal showdown in the Scottish courts on Monday, where anti-Brexit campaigners will accuse Johnson and his aides of trying to “frustrate” the legislation, which they have branded the “surrender act”.

The No 10 source said: “The prime minister has to obey the law, so the government is sending this letter, but it does not call on him to change policy and he is not changing policy. It did not say he must sign the letter, it says he must send the letter.”

Johnson appears to have secured assurances from EU leaders that they will not respond quickly to the request for an extension.

A No 10 source said: “There is talk of an EU Council on October 28, so this may not even be answered until then. The EU council wants us to leave with this deal. It wants to draw a line under this nonsense now. There is a chance that Macron, Merkel and others say collectively that there is no delay. The MPs are taking an enormous gamble if they don’t pass this next week.”

In a further show of support, the German budget commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, warned MPs that if they rejected Johnson’s deal the only alternative would be a no-deal Brexit, not an extension.

Oettinger said: “If the agreement which the heads of state and government approved on Thursday is rejected by the lower house [of parliament], then I can see at the moment no third way beside this agreement and a hard Brexit without a deal.”

In another move, Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski has held private talks with senior figures in both the Polish and Hungarian governments in the last 48 hours in a bid to persuade them to “jump together” to veto any proposed extension. No 10 is aware of his activities but remains sceptical that they might work.

If Johnson is forced into an extension aides said he would brand it parliament’s fault and then seek to trigger a general election.

“The government’s position is that this is parliament’s letter. It is not the prime minister’s letter. The prime minister is not asking for a delay, parliament is asking for a delay.

“If the EU council comes back and offers a delay, it is offering it to parliament. If that happens, it’s parliament’s delay.

“We are going to keep going and force parliamentto take responsibility for its actions. If they don’t put the deal through we will have an election, we will win a majority and then we’ll put the deal through.”

Johnson crashed to defeat after all 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs voted for the amendment in defiance of a last-minute effort to win them over. In a further blow to the prime minister, Nigel Dodds, their leader in Westminster threatened to vote against the withdrawal bill next week, issuing a warning that the party would support amendments that strengthened the union.

The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, said that if Mr Johnson acted as if he was “above the law”, he would find himself in court.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “The prime minister must now comply with the law. He can no longer use the threat of a no-deal crash out to blackmail members to support his sellout deal.”

THE SUNDAY TIMES