Starmer told the Observer that Downing Street’s strategy was clearly to stoke tensions but he warned Johnson that any attempt to invoke the Civil Contingencies Act would be defeated in the courts. “The Civil Contingencies Act is the only possible route I can imagine they can be thinking of,” Grieve said. Senior Labour sources said that possible use of the Civil Contingencies Act to trump the Benn act was on a list of options that the party’s legal advisers believe Downing Street might use. Last week the former Tory prime minister John Major said he feared the Johnson government would try to bypass the Benn Act through an order of council. Downing St sources said it was not planning to use the Civil Contingencies Act.

Source: The Guardian September 28, 2019 19:01 UTC