With only days remaining before the UK’s expected departure from the EU, October 31, Boris Johnson is facing renewed resistance from within his own ranks and without to delay the “Halloween exit”.
And although a Conservative Party MP, Oliver Letwin, forced Johnson’s hand over the weekend to seek an exit delay because of a technicality that prevents a no-deal divorce, the British Prime Minister could have an about-face situation forced on him later this week.
This comes after it emerged in news from London that opposition MPs and several of the 21 Tory members of parliament expelled from Johnson’s government were toying with the much-supported idea of launching a new customs union with the EU, an economic bloc that would largely relate to trade with Northern Ireland.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Tories’ coalition partner in government, has already indicated that it would support a motion for such a union.
So too have Labour Party MPs with several Tory MPs incensed by Johnson’s pig-headed intractability to stick to the October 31 deadline.
Labour has furthermore indicated that it will table the motion in the House of Commons on the same day later this week that Johnson will seek parliamentary approval for his Withdrawal Agreement Bill, this weekend’s contested divorce proposal that saw Johnson forced to reconsider next Thursday’s Brexit deadline.
Like a naughty school boy with unkempt hair, he sent a letter to European Council President David Tusk asking for a delay after Letwin made it clear that a no-deal divorce would contravene the Benn Act which serves to avoid a hard Brexit.
But Johnson didn’t sign the letter, as if to voice his objection to what was decided by parliament. A follow-up letter, also sent to Tusk saying that a delay would be “a bad idea”, was signed, clearly indicating Johnson’s flagrant dismissal of parliamentary procedures.
It has also since emerged that contempt of court charges are being drafted against the UK leader over the letters he sent to Tusk.
And if it’s not enough of a headache for Britain’s leader, it now looks like Labour, the DUP and several Tories eager to have Johnson jettisoned, are preparing to push through a motion in the lower house that will throw a massive spanner in the Brexit works.
International trade secretary for the UK, Liz Truss, said such a customs union will take her country “back to square one”. – Eugene Goddard
