Press

Sam Lowe at the Centre for European Reform warns of trouble ahead for Hogan and the EU’s drive to sign new trade deals in the face of a newly intransigent European Parliament and vociferous green lobby. 

"Knowing how the European Parliament works it’s almost inevitable that it will try to challenge one candidate," Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform told Euronews.

In a speech to the the Centre for European Reform, Major said he feared Boris Johnson could try - via the privy council - to bypass the Benn Act by suspending it until after 31 October.He said: My fear is that the government will seek to bypass statute law, by passing an order of council to suspend the act until after 31 October.It is important to note that an order of council can be passed by privy councillors – that is government ministers – without involving Her Majesty the Queen. I should warn the prime minister that – if this route is taken – it will be in flagrant defiance of parliament and utterly disrespectful to the supreme court. It would be a piece of political chicanery that no one should ever forgive or forget. Major also accused Johnson of “wilfully” destroying the prospects of cross-agreement on Brexit with his Commons onslaught on the opposition. We’ll be mopping up all the reaction to Major’s speech and covering the other political developments today.

Major said Johnson was whipping up "fear and anger" for electoral purposes - a tactic he described as "profoundly un-Conservative".In a speech to the Centre for European Reform, Sir John said he feared the government could try to bypass the so-called Benn Act by an executive Order in Council, suspending it until after October 31 when the UK is set to leave the EU."I should warn the prime minister that - if this route is taken - it will be in flagrant defiance of parliament and utterly disrespectful to the Supreme Court," he said.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman has insisted the government does not recognise a plan that Sir John Major warned could be used to circumvent the Benn Act, which is aimed at forcing the prime minister to seek a Brexit extension. ...Major had said he feared the government would try to bypass the act through an order of council. “It is important to note that an order of council can be passed by privy councillors – that is government ministers – without involving HM the Queen,” he told the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

Boris Johnson may be planning to bypass a law blocking a no-deal Brexit by issuing an order to suspend it until after the scheduled date of Britain’s EU withdrawal on 31 October, former prime minister Sir John Major has warned.The order could be passed by ministers acting in the Privy Council without the involvement of parliament or the Queen, said Sir John, who denounced the tactic as “a piece of political chicanery that no one should ever forgive or forget”.

Former Tory Prime Minister John Major has accused Mr Johnson of “wilfully” destroying the prospects of cross-agreement on Brexit after the language row, and turning the Tory party into a “Brexit party tribute band”.“Most Conservatives are not a Brexit Party tribute band, nor have we abandoned our core values to find compromise, seek allies, and strive for unity, rather than division and disarray,” he said in a speech for the Centre for European Reform.