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1Boris Johnson will dare the Queen to sack him rather than resign as prime minister in an attempt to drive through Brexit on October 31, cabinet ministers have revealed.
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3In an unprecedented escalation of the 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.
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5They 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.
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7Sources say MPs and peers have even discussed the idea of Commons Speaker John Bercow taking on the job, although some involved in the talks do not think he could command majority support.
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9Senior 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.
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11One 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.”
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13Together, 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 centuries.
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15The 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”.
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17Sources 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.
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19Johnson will have telephone calls with his fellow EU leaders, including a planned conversation with Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, on Wednesday.
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21Steve 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.
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23However, insiders said they expected the EU to signal that the talks were going nowhere as early as tomorrow, triggering a vicious blame game.
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25Opposition 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 Dame Margaret Beckett as caretaker in his place.
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27It 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.
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29A 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.”
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31The last time a monarch sacked a prime minister was in 1834, when William IV dismissed Lord Melbourne.
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33In 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 Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, and Varadkar.
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35Starmer 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.
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37“We also think the text will show how the government plans to replace the current commitments to protect workers’ rights.”
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39Behind 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.
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41“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.”
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43Despite the downbeat tone in Brussels, sources in Berlin suggested Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is still ready to thrash out a deal at an EU summit on October 17.
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45Insiders say Johnson will have to give ground on customs controls between Northern Ireland and the republic, and the veto powers over EU regulations that his blueprint grants to the DUP.
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47A senior government source predicted no breakthrough: “I’ve watched SW1 claim for 10 years that Merkel will change the game. She won’t. The most they’ll do is nudge the French if Ireland wants to do a deal. They won’t pressure Ireland.”
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49A Labour source said: “The mood is that the talks will collapse tomorrow.”