Johnson would break law if he tried to use letter loophole, suggest legal experts

BORIS Johnson would be breaking the law if he attempted to scupper a Brexit delay when he is forced to request an extension, according to legal experts.

The Prime Minister is compelled to ask the EU for the deadline to be put back to January under legislation pushed through the Commons by opposition MPs and Tory rebels.

But the Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Johnson, who said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than request an extension, may find a way out by convincing Brussels to reject the request.

One plan said to be under consideration is for the PM to accompany the Article 50 extension plea to Brussels with a letter stating that the Government does not want a delay past the current October 31 deadline.

However, former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption denied the move would be legal.

“No, of course it wouldn’t,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“Not only has he got to send the letter, he’s got to apply for an extension. To send the letter and then try to neutralise it seems to me, plainly, a breach of the Act.

“What you’ve got to realise is the courts are not very fond of loopholes.”

Lord Falconer, a former justice secretary, reached the same conclusion.

The Labour peer tweeted: “Statutory Purpose of request letter is to get extension. To seek to destroy statutory purpose is to break law.”

The legislation that would extend the Brexit deadline to January 31 formally became law by receiving the Royal Assent yesterday.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government would “adhere to the law” but he said that ministers would “test to the limit what it does actually lawfully require”.

“We will look very carefully, legally, at what it requires and what it doesn’t require,” he told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.