Opposition wants to force PM’s hand to seek a delay for Britain’s Brexit

BRITAIN’S opposition parties said they would try to pass a law which would force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek a delay to Britain’s departure from the EU and prevent a potentially chaotic no-deal exit at the end of October.

The UK faces a constitutional crisis at home and a showdown with the EU as Johnson has pledged to leave the bloc in 66 days without a deal unless Brussels agrees to renegotiate the Brexit divorce.

Parliament is preparing for a battle with Johnson, who has vowed to take Britain out of the EU at the end of October with or without an exit agreement.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hosted talks with opposition parties yesterday where they agreed that passing a law to force the government to seek a delay to Britain’s EU departure would probably have the most support.

“We are going to do the right thing by our country,” said Anna Soubry, leader of the Independent Group for Change party. “We are up against a prime minister who has no mandate for this and I think he has no regard for parliament.”

The opposition parties are seeking to repeat what they did earlier this year when MPs seized control of the parliamentary agenda to pass a law forcing Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May to seek an extension to Britain’s EU membership.

Johnson held talks last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Donald Tusk about his demand that the Brexit deal on offer is changed to remove the so-called backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border in Ireland.

He was to talk to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday and earlier spoke to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Johnson’s Brexit adviser David Frost would travel to Brussels today for informal discussions.

EU officials say they are listening to Johnson’s arguments to replace one of the most hotly contested elements of the divorce agreement, something the bloc has previously said it will not agree to.

A British official said it was felt there had been a softening in the EU’s rhetoric.

One EU diplomat said Johnson had not made any big mistakes at the G7 summit in France at the weekend, his first outing on the international stage since taking office last month.