Gove triggers no-deal plans
Withdrawal Agreement Bill – the formal legislation that needs to pass through Parliament so Britain can quit the bloc. Downing Street hopes for a vote on the Bill’s second reading tomorrow. The result likely to be on a knife edge.
EU ambassadors from the 27 nations are expected to discuss the Brexit extension request in the coming days.
The extension requested would run until January 31. But diplomatic sources said the UK could leave earlier, on the ANGER Shadow Chancellor McDonnell
1st or 15th of November, December or January, if the pact is ratified before the new deadline.
But Cabinet Minister Michael Gove insisted we will leave the EU by October 31. He said: “We have the means and the ability to do so. Parliament can’t change the Prime Minister’s mind.” Ministers have stepped up no-deal planning under Operation Yellowhammer. MPs voted by a majority of 16 to back an amendment put forward by ex-Tory Cabinet Minister Sir Oliver Letwin on Saturday to withhold approval of the deal “unless and until implementing legislation is passed”.
The PM got a senior diplomat to send Brussels an unsigned photocopy of the letter he was required to send asking to delay withdrawal from the bloc, with a cover note stressing his detachment from the move.
In a signed note to European Council President Donald Tusk, the PM said a Brexit extension would be “deeply corrosive”. MPs warn the PM may find himself in the law courts if he tries to circumvent Parliament’s instructions to seek a delay.
SNP MP Joanna Cherry said he pledged not to defy or frustrate the law, and it “looks like he’s breaking both promises”.
An existing Brexit court case is due for its next hearing in the Inner House of Edinburgh’s Court of Session today.
Mr Gove OPERATION Yellowhammer plans for a no-deal Brexit are being “triggered”, Michael Gove revealed yesterday. The risk of crashing out increased after MPs forced the Government to ask for another delay, the senior Tory claimed. Hundreds of civil servants will switch to operations centres in the contingency plans. Mr Gove said: “We have done everything possible in order to prepare.”