October 04, 2019

Boris Johnson 'Will Seek Brexit Extension If He Cannot Get A New Deal'

Boris Johnson will write to the EU requesting a delay to Brexit if he cannot strike new withdrawal deal, court documents suggest.
Boris Johnson Will Seek Brexit Extension If He Cannot Get A New Deal

A government legal submission to Scotland’s highest civil court makes clear that the prime minister will comply with the so-called Benn Act to block a no-deal Brexit on October 31.

Johnson has repeatedly said he would never delay Brexit and has refused to quell speculation that he may seek a loophole in the legislation to deliver his pledge to leave the EU “do or die” on Halloween.
But in an unprecedented admission to the Scottish court, the government made clear that “the prime minister accepts” that he “will send a letter in the form set out” by the Benn Act, requesting a delay to January 31 if he cannot pass a withdrawal deal by October 19.
Jolyon Maugham QC, one of the lawyers leading the legal action aimed to get the PM to comply with the Benn Act suggested Johnson’s promise had been left in tatters by the court document.The Government is saying that it will send the Benn Act letter and it will not frustrate the Act (i.e. by seeking to persuade a r27 Member State to veto our request for an extension). So what is left of the Prime Minister's promise that we will leave on 31.10? https://t.co/gsJIMEUkV3— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) October 4, 2019The government also conceded that if the EU agrees to the extension request, Johnson “is obliged immediately to notify” European Council President Donald Tusk “that the United Kingdom agrees to that extension”, and will follow procedures for Commons votes as set out by the Benn Act if Brussels proposes another date.
The government submission concludes by saying that the PM accepts “that he is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate (the Benn act)’s 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.”
Downing Street refused to comment on the document.Related... Can Boris Get Away With Breaking His Do-Or-Die Brexit Pledge? Boris Johnson's Speech Warns EU To Match His 'Compromise' Or Face No-Deal Brexit Boris Johnson Submits Brexit Proposal With Plan To Scrap The Irish Backstop

Headlines

World rings in 2023

Country by country, the world welcomed 2023 early Sunday morning — and bid goodbye to a year marked by war, economic uncertainties, and COVID variants. Many cities were celebrating New Year's in full force for the first time since the pandemic, with more than 100,000 gathering on the Embankment of the Thames in London for a firework show that paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, while an estimated million people braved the rain for the New Year's Eve party in New York's Times Square. Roni Bintang/Getty Images Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Alexi Rosenfeld/ Getty Images Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images "I just wish everyone a lot of prosperity, peace, and love," Tina Wright, a reveler visiting New York City from the Phoenix area, told the Los Angeles Times.