‘Childish trick’ within the law

BREXIT: ACT DOES NOT REQUIRE PM TO SIGN LETTER ASKING EU FOR A DELAY, SAYS LAWYER

Johnson sends two letters, with the one parliament demanded remaining unsigned.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the right side of the law after he reluctantly sent a letter requesting a Brexit delay at his opponents’ behest, a lawyer who has worked on high-profile cases challenging the government said yesterday.

Johnson’s defeat in the British parliament on Saturday over the sequencing of the ratification of his deal exposed the prime minister to a law passed by those opposed to a no-deal departure, demanding he request a delay until January 31.

Johnson sent the request note as required, but unsigned, and added another signed letter arguing against what he cast as a deeply corrosive delay.

European Union Council president Donald Tusk has said he has received the request and is consulting on how to react, but critics say Johnson’s letters were “childish tricks”.

David Pannick, a lawyer who has worked on a challenge to Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament ahead of Brexit, and also on a 2016 case demanding that lawmakers had a vote on the Brexit deal, said Johnson had complied with the law.

“I think the prime minister is on the right side of the law on this occasion. The Benn Act required him to send a letter to the president of the European Council seeking an extension, and that’s what he’s done.

“The Act doesn’t require that he sign the letter,” Pannick said, referring to law asking him to request a delay. “The Benn Act has achieved its purpose. The Act doesn’t require the prime minister to abandon his political objectives, his political beliefs, that we should leave on the 31st.”

Pannick said he had assisted lawmaker Oliver Letwin in drafting the amendment which derailed Johnson’s plans for a vote on his Brexit deal last Saturday.

The amendment said that lawmakers