I was misled earlier, and therefore I misled you. Boris Johnson has no intention of trying to repeal the Benn Act. Johnson will send a letter to EU leaders requesting a Brexit delay, under Benn's terms. But the PM would send a second letter whose contents would be determined...
by whether he has agreed a Brexit deal with the EU this week, nearly agreed a deal or whether all bets are off. Johnson disagrees with the drafters of the Benn Act that he would be prohibited from sending this second countermanding or qualifying letter. Which I know will...
outrage many of you and could therefore end up only being settled as to its legality by the Supreme Court. Obviously if the government were to win a vote on an actual deal this Saturday, the Benn Act would in effect be switched off. But if there were no deal, if Johnson did...
not win a meaningful.vote, he might actually want a short Brexit delay, and could signal that in a second letter, if the delay were only for the express purpose of tying up the loose ends of a Brexit deal. If however the gap between Johnson and the EU was not...
bridgeable, I presume Johnson would want to shout and scream that any Brexit delay would be over his dead body, that he really and truly does want a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. But in the unlikely event that the EU were to call his bluff and gave him...
that no-deal Brexit on 31 October, that would be the kind of gulp moment for him that he may never have experienced. That probably won't happen. And Johnson may - paradoxically and never to be spoken - be banking on the Benn Act bailing him out. But the EU's 27 leaders do not...
have to do what the Benn Act requests of them. The risk of playing chicken, as Johnson and the EU are doing with each other, is that neither side can be certain they won't drive over the edge of the cliff.
