A senior No 10 source told The Sunday Times: “If there isn’t a deal by the 18th we will sabotage the extension.” Another source said Johnson’s team was prepared to “take a chainsaw to anything” standing in its way.
No 10 believes that its approach will guarantee an emergency judicial review by the Supreme Court in the week of October 21, with judges deciding the fate of Brexit and the government.
Johnson’s approach suggests Britain is on course for the worst constitutional smash-up since parliamentary government was properly established in 1688.
After a week of turmoil, The Sunday Times can reveal that Whitehall mandarins have also
begun work on a plan B, preparing for the prime minister to announce his resignation. Civil servants are drawing up a blueprint for how the announcement would be made and how Jeremy Corbyn — or a politician enjoying cross-party support — would then be invited to form a government. “It’s a tactical manoeuvre and shows he is prepared to lose the battle to win the war,” a source said.