PM IS TOLD: PLEASE DON’T QUIT!

He’s warned it’s better to ask for Brexit extension than let Corbyn into Downing St

BORIS Johnson should delay Brexit rather than resign and risk opening the door of No10 to Jeremy Corbyn, a Cabinet ally has warned.

The senior minister told the Daily Mail the Prime Minister would fight in court to try to find a way around the law forcing him to extend the October 31 Brexit deadline.

But the minister said that if Mr Johnson lost, he should reluctantly agree to send a letter to Brussels asking for a delay.

The only alternative course of action – to resign as Prime Minister – could mean the Labour leader staying in No10 for as long as a year, the Brexiteer minister warned.

The comments expose the painful dilemma the PM could face if he fails to secure a Brexit deal in the next seven weeks, after Mr Corbyn left him in limbo by refusing to agree to a snap general election. the law passed by anti-No Deal MPs last week, Mr Johnson must write a letter to EU leaders on October 19 asking for a delay to Article 50.

He has said he would rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than do so, and continued to insist the UK will leave at the end of next month.

The Brexiteer minister said Mr Johnson could not simply ignore the law, but would have to make clear he was being compelled by the courts.

They said: ‘The Government does not break the law. He should say it is the court’s request.’

Asked if they would prefer Mr Johnson to resign or send the letter, the minister said: ‘Extension. He cannot resign.

‘Jeremy Corbyn could end up staying in No10 for a year.’

The minister also suggested the PM could face resistance from Eurosceptics to a new deal with the EU, saying the European Research Group would be ‘harder to convince than the DUP’.

In the past week the Prime Minister has redoubled his efforts to get a deal at the EU Council on October 17 and 18.

If he fails the anti-No Deal law will kick in, compelling him to send a letter to Brussels requesting a three-month extension to Article 50. He may fight it in the courts – or quit to avoid complying.

Leading Tories fear Labour and opposition MPs could continue to block an election after the end of next month and instead try to force through a second Brexit referendum.

One of the leading rebels, Sir Oliver Letwin, who was among the 21 kicked out of the Tory party for voting for the anti-No Deal bill, said yesterday that the alliance of MPs behind the new law could continue to resist an election unless there is either a deal or a second referendum.

‘We need to resolve this issue of Brexit before there is a general election so that the election can be about who you want to have govern you, and so the resolution of the Brexit issue is separate,’ he told the Evening Standard.

His intervention came after Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson also said there should be a second referendum before an election, a proposal also backed by Tony Blair. The former PM has said Brexit should be decided as a ‘stand-alone issue’.

If Mr Johnson resigns, he would be forced to go to the Queen and recommend a replacement.

As Leader of the Opposition, Mr Corbyn would demand to be installed in No10.

He would need enough MPs to back him in a confidence vote to stay in post, and endorsing a second referendum could give him the support in the short term.

The legislation required for a second referendum could take a long time to pass.

In theory Mr Corbyn could therefore stay in Downing Street for months and months while the second referendum law passed through Parliament. There would also need to be time set aside for the campaign, which in 2016 lasted two months.

Another former Tory Brexit rebel, Antoinette Sandbach, announced she now wanted a second referendum. Writing to her constituents she said she sees ‘no other option to resolve the current crisis’.

Amid the Brexit wrangling, Mr Johnson yesterday visited NLV Pharos, a lighthouse tender moored on the River Thames, to mark International Shipping Week. He helped teach children about shipping containers, and joined in as they played with a model container ship.

The Prime Minister also spoke to technical apprentices as he discussed his plans to boost shipbuilding in Britain.

‘End up in No10 for a year’

BORIS Johnson is standing at a crossroads on the tortuous journey to Brexit. Three onward directions beckon. The first leads to disaster, the second is unpalatable and the third is a possible way out.

The Prime Minister is now compelled by MPs opposed to No Deal to deliver his ‘letter of surrender’ to the European Union next month. This begs for an extension to UK membership of the EU to prevent it crashing out on October 31.

To avoid this humiliation, Mr Johnson could choose the first route – to the ditch he has promised to die in. By resigning he can claim to have stuck to his word. But with appalling consequences.

In effect, he would be handing the keys of No 10 to Jeremy Corbyn. And what can we expect from the Labour leader? Penal taxes, the return of bullying unions and now his insane proposal of a four-day working week. And, of course, no Brexit.

Route two involves a trip to the bakery, where Mr Johnson must eat humble pie. In this scenario, he delivers the letter, dumping his promise to quit the EU on October 31, ‘do or die’. Unpalatable – but not necessarily fatal.

Enraged Tory hard-Brexiteer MPs – the Spartans – may indeed produce their spears and stab the Prime Minister in the back, as he fears.

But the public may be more forgiving in a general election, recognising that Mr Johnson sacrificed dignity in order to fight another day.

There is a third way: a trading arrangement that would dispense with the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. A concession on the province’s commercial status need not endanger its political position within the UK.

This route is the most laborious but it offers the alluring prospect of Brexit with a deal before the October deadline. There are plenty of Labour MPs representing Leave constituencies who would join Boris on this journey.

Brussels needs a way out, too. The eurozone is in crisis, bedevilled by chronic low growth, as shown by the emergency stimulus package announced by the European Central Bank. A trade war with a No Deal UK is the last thing it needs.

The Prime Minister needs to ditch the hyperbole and get down to detail. The road to a negotiated deal may be rocky but it still offers the best destination.