‘Sack me if you dare’, Boris will tell Queen
Boris Johnson will dare Queen Elizabeth to sack him rather than resign as prime minister in an attempt to drive through Brexit on October 31, cabinet ministers have revealed.
In an unprecedented escalation of the United Kingdom’s constitutional crisis, senior aides said Johnson would not stand aside if his proposals were rejected by Brussels and MPs tried to unseat him to avert a no-deal Brexit.
They said Johnson was prepared to ‘‘squat’’ in Downing Street even if MPs declare no confidence in his government and agree a caretaker prime minister to replace him.
Sources say MPs and peers have even discussed the idea of House of Commons Speaker John Bercow taking on the job, although some involved in the talks do not think he could command majority support.
Senior Tories also claimed Johnson would sit tight if he were found in contempt of court for ignoring the Benn Act, a law passed by remainer MPs to prevent no deal, unless he faces jail.
One senior figure said: ‘‘Unless the police turn up at the doors of 10 Downing Street with a warrant for the prime minister’s arrest, he won’t be leaving.’’
Together, Johnson’s plans mean that the clashes in parliament and the Supreme Court may be only the opening salvos in what promises to be the biggest constitutional storm in Britain in centuries.
The details emerged as Johnson’s draft deal with Brussels appeared to be on life support. EU bosses announced on Friday night that Johnson’s proposal to remove the Northern Ireland backstop was ‘‘not the basis of a deal’’.
Sources close to Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator, told The Sunday Times this weekend: ‘‘We are not going into the tunnel,’’ meaning the process of line-by-line negotiations that would signal a possible breakthrough.
Johnson will have telephone calls with his fellow EU leaders, including a planned conversation with Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, on Wednesday.
Steve Barclay, the Brexit secretary, will travel to Holland today to drum up support for Johnson’s plans. The prime minister’s chief negotiator, David Frost, will return to Brussels and his senior aide Sir Edward Lister is expected to travel later to Dublin.
However, insiders said they expected the EU to signal that the talks were going nowhere as early as tomorrow, triggering a vicious blame game.
Opposition MPs and Tory rebels plan to act if Johnson refuses to agree a delay to the Brexit deadline of October 31 – installing a veteran such as Margaret Beckett as caretaker in his place.
It has been assumed by members of the ‘‘rebel alliance’’ that if a caretaker prime minister commanded majority support, Johnson would be duty-bound to resign. But he could refuse to resign or recommend the name of any successor to the Queen.
A senior cabinet minister said: ‘‘Our opponents have flouted convention and there is nothing in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act that says you have to resign. The Queen is not going to fire the prime minister. She would dissolve parliament and let the people decide.’’
The last time a British monarch sacked a prime minister was in 1834, when William IV dismissed Lord Melbourne.
In a bid to pile the pressure on Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, will tomorrow try to force a parliamentary vote to demand that the government publish the entire legal text of his Brexit plan – something he has resisted, despite demands from JeanClaude Juncker, the European Commission president, and Varadkar. Starmer said: ‘‘The legal text is important because we suspect it will confirm that the government’s proposals unavoidably mean the introduction of infrastructure in Northern Ireland, and that this will contradict the assurances Johnson gave in the House on Thursday.
‘‘We also think the text will show how the government plans to replace the current commitments to protect workers’ rights.’’
Behind the scenes, ministers are warning Juncker and Barnier that they are ‘‘out of touch’’ with British public opinion and that they are risking ‘‘disaster’’ unless they do a deal with Johnson. A senior No 10 source warned that refusing a deal would simply lead to Johnson winning an election on a no-deal manifesto – or leave triumphant if remainers secured a new referendum.
‘‘If they listen to the people who lost the last referendum, there will be a disaster,’’ the source said. ‘‘There will be an election. We are going to win it. If Boris has a majority, we can leave with no deal. They need to face political reality.’’
– Sunday Times