Bojo’s own exit issue

Pressured to quit, PM works on tactics to thwart Parliament

LONDON: Boris Johnson’s political team has been looking at ways to sabotage a new law ordering him to delay Brexit.

A law passed by Parliament and due to be given royal assent on Monday would force Mr Johnson to beg Brussels for an extension of Brexit until January 31.

The debate on the new law is likely to end up in court, as Mr Johnson moves to ignore or break the law, while rebel Conservative MPs will hire lawyers to ensure it is upheld.

The law even spells out the wording of the letter Mr Johnson would be re- quired to send.

A Cabinet source said Mr Johnson could send the proscribed let- ter, as well as an- other letter, to o sabotage the law.

“There is a prescribed letter that has to be sent ... Does that stop the Prime Minister sending other documents to the EU? I don’t think it does,” the source told the UK Daily Telegraph, a newspaper for which Mr Johnson was a long-term paid columnist.

Mr Johnson’s bid t to break the Brexit deadlock through a snap general election on October 15 is facing an almost certain second successive defeat in Parliamen Parliament, where he no longer has a working majority.

But two ministers have both rejected speculation that Mr Johnson (pictured) had no real option but to resign.

Neither could say clearly how he intended to keep all his Brexit promises.

“Of course he is not going to break the law,” Foreign Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News.

“We have a plan, which is to stick to what we have been doing,” Interior Minister Sajid Javid told the BBC.

Looming this week is Mr Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for over a month from some point between Monday and Thursday. The legal but controversial step was meant to remove domestic obstacles while he uses his “no-deal” Brexit threat to wrest better divorce terms from Brussels.

European leaders are also sceptical that another delay designed to avoid economic disruption was still worth all the political pain.

“In the current circumstances, it’s ‘no!’,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Paris. “We are not going through this every three months.”

The one EU nation that stands to lose the most from a messy breakup is Ireland. Mr Johnson will travel to Dublin for his first official meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar today.