PM Boris Johnson doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre.POOL/Reuters
He’s been cornered by Parliament and abandoned by a growing number of political allies. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has remained defiant as he scrambles to salvage his Brexit strategy.
On Monday, Mr. Johnson will try once again to call an early election, convinced it’s the only way out of the Brexit logjam. But the opposition parties have already signalled that they won’t give the required consent, setting the country up for another week of political intrigue and Brexit limbo.
“We will surmount all the obstacles in our path,” Mr. Johnson declared to the Sunday Express. "But whatever happens, we will get ready to come out on Oct. 31 and we will serve this country and its people with the energy and commitment they deserve.”
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Mr. Johnson doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre. He has pledged to pull Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31, with or without a withdrawal agreement, but he has been badly outflanked in Parliament. A rebel alliance of MPs has passed a law that prevents a no-deal Brexit and the opposition won’t agree to an election until after Halloween, to ensure the country doesn’t crash out of the bloc.
Mr. Johnson’s position in the House of Commons has also been weakened by his decision to expel 21 Conservative MPs who sided with the opposition. And his claim that he can still reach an agreement with the EU before the deadline has come under fire after EU officials said no meaningful talks have taken place.
Another blow came on the weekend when Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd resigned from cabinet and left the Tory caucus. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms. Rudd issued a scathing attack on Mr. Johnson’s Brexit plans and slammed his treatment of fellow Conservatives.
”This short-sighted culling of my colleagues has stripped the party of broad-minded and dedicated Conservative MPs. I cannot support this act of political vandalism,” she wrote. Ms. Rudd added that she didn’t believe Mr. Johnson really wanted an agreement with the EU and that his real objective was a no-deal departure, which she fears would damage the economy.
Her resignation came just days after Mr. Johnson’s brother, Jo Johnson, also quit the cabinet and the party in opposition to the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan.
Boris Johnson has stood firm and said he’d rather be “dead in a ditch” than accept any extension to the deadline. Just how he can fulfill that commitment remains to be seen, but he does have a couple of options.
He could try to find a way around the no-deal Brexit legislation. The law is expected to come into force on Monday and it requires Mr. Johnson to seek a three-month extension to the Oct. 31 deadline if he hasn’t reached an agreement with the EU by Oct. 19.
But Mr. Johnson has prepared plans to legally stop any Brexit extension, the Daily Telegraph reported late on Sunday. According to the newspaper, a plan under consideration would see Mr. Johnson sending a letter alongside Parliament’s request for a three-month Brexit extension, setting out that the government does not want any delay after Oct. 31.
Mr. Johnson has already hinted that he’ll look for a loophole. He told reporters last week that the legislation would only force him to request a delay “in theory” and, on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab went further. “We’re always going to behave lawfully as a government,” Mr. Raab told Sky TV. “But what we are going to do with that legislation is test very carefully what it does and doesn’t require.”
That’s prompted outrage from opposition MPs who have hired a team of lawyers to prepare for a legal battle. “Every tinpot dictator on the planet throughout history has used the excuse of having the people on their side to break the law to shut down Parliament and all the rest of it,” said Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour Party member of the House of Lords. Some legal experts and Britain’s former chief prosecutor have said that Mr. Johnson risks being thrown in jail if he breaks the law.
Mr. Johnson could also avoid extending the deadline by resigning as Prime Minister and allowing Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn to form a government. Mr. Johnson could then move a motion of non-confidence in the government and try to force an election. So far, Mr. Johnson appears to have ruled out resigning but he has good reason to be eager for an election. Recent opinion polls put the Tories on top and up to 12 points clear of Labour.
The EU could also offer Mr. Johnson a way out. Any extension to the Brexit deadline must be approved by the other 27 EU states. On Sunday, French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, expressed frustration at the political drama in Britain and threatened to veto any extension. “We are not going to do this [extend the deadline] every three months,” he told Europe 1 radio. "It’s very worrying. The British must tell us what they want.”