Cox: Send Brexit letter or I’ll quit
Attorney General who torpedoed Mrs May’s hopes of passing deal now threatens to do the same to Boris
BORIS JOHNSON has been warned the Government’s chief law officer will resign if he does not write to Brussels to ask for a Brexit extension, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox is understood to have conveyed the threat during a ‘heated’ exchange with the Prime Minister over the Government’s concession to a Scottish court last week that Mr Johnson would comply with the Commons’ order to ask for a delay if no deal is agreed by October 19.
The concession came despite Mr Johnson’s public assertion that he would rather ‘die in a ditch’ than make such a request.
The revelations come as EU sources revealed last night that an embattled Mr Johnson has been forced to cancel plans to meet Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s President Macron after they refused to change their diaries in order to see him.
According to multiple sources, Friday’s Government submission to the Court of Session followed an animated encounter between Mr Johnson and his law officer s–including Mr Cox and Lord Keen, Advocate General for Scotland – on Wednesday evening.
One source said that Mr Cox and Lord Keen told the Prime Minister that, if the Government did not make clear it would not break the law, the Prime Minister would face ‘resignations’, adding: ‘Boris was absolutely furious but he had to back down.’
When the submission was made public on Friday, Mr Johnson – who has dismissed rebel legislation to request an extension as ‘the Surrender Act’ – reacted by tweeting ‘New deal or No Deal’ and insisted he would ‘Get Brexit Done’.
Mr Cox is already regarded by many Conservatives as‘ the wrecker’ who sank Theresa May’s hopes of winning Commons’ support for her Brexit deal earlier this year. At the time, even Brexit hardliners were looking for reasons to support the deal. But the Attorney General spelt out in blunt terms that the UK had no legal way out of the hated backstop.
Reports of Mr Cox’s threat come as Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom today insists in The Mail on Sunday there is ‘cautious optimism’ that a deal is within reach – despite Brussels refusing to hold talks with the UK this weekend.
Writing opposite, Ms Leadsom says: ‘If we do get a deal at the European Council on October 17 and 18, we will move at pace to get it through Parliament before October 31.’
But last night, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte added to the sense of scepticism on the Continent, saying ‘important questions remain’ about Mr Johnson’s proposals.
Speaking after a phone call with Mr Johnson, he said: ‘There is a lot of work to be done ahead of October 17/18.’ The European Commission said yesterday EU members had agreed that Mr Johnson’s proposals – under which the backstop aimed at preventing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic would be replaced by a system whereby Northern Ireland would stay in the EU single market for goods but leave the customs union – ‘do not provide a basis for concluding an agreement’. It added that the UK would be given ‘another opportunity to present its proposals in detail’ tomorrow.
Downing Street said Mr Johnson will ‘ continue to hit the phones’ over the coming days and ‘remains open to meetings with EU leaders’. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay will travel to the Netherlands for talks later today. Mr Johnson’s chief negotiator David Frost is expected to return to Brussels tomorrow and his chief of staff, Sir Edward Lister, will travel to Dublin to try to persuade the Irish Government to drop their opposition.
No 10 regards October 16 – the day before the start of the crunch EU summit – as the final deadline for the EU to lift its opposition, giving Mr Johnson just nine days to find common ground with Brussels.
But after Mr Cox’s stand, Mr Johnson has spent this weekend holed up with advisers trying to thrash out which loophole could be used to obey the law while still sticking to his pledge that the UK will leave on October 31.
Government lawyers are trying to find a form of words for the letter which would comply with the Act, yet not persuade the EU to grant a delay. Aides are also still looking at ways of trying to ‘sabotage’ the EU from within, such as by refusing to appoint a British EU commissioner, to force them to kick us out.
During his encounter with Mr
‘Boris was absolutely furious but he had to back down’
Johnson, Mr Cox is understood to have said the legal system would be destabilised if he did not comply with the so-called Benn Act, designed to force him to request an extension if no deal is done.
Mr John son’ s chief adviser Dominic Cummings told advisers the extension letter was ‘ Parliament’s letter, not the Prime Minister’s letter’ – suggesting there were way of complying with the Benn Act but delivering Brexit on time.
But a source told this newspaper that the Attorney General ‘thinks they can’t get round the Act’.
Mr Cox said last night that there was no ‘ row’ when he met the Prime Minister. But asked if he had threatened to resign, he replied that he was ‘not at liberty’ to discuss any advice that he provided to the Prime Minister.