Dominic Grieve claims Boris Johnson will be SACKED by the QUEEN if he refuses to ask the EU for a Brexit delay
- Former Tory attorney general said PM will be ‘out in five minutes’ if he breaks law
- He said courts will move ‘very quickly’ if PM fails to comply with anti-No Deal law
- Mr Grieve said the Queen would sack Mr Johnson if he refused to delay Brexit
Dominic Grieve today claimed Boris Johnson will be sacked by the Queen if he refuses to comply with an anti-No Deal law.
The former Tory attorney general said the courts would move ‘very quickly’ if Mr Johnson tried to ignore rebel legislation forcing him to ask the EU for a Brexit delay if the two sides have not struck an accord in the run up to October 31.
Mr Grieve said that if the PM then tried to disregard instructions from the courts the monarch would be forced to step in and dismiss him.
Mr Johnson and his allies have long insisted that the government will comply with what is on the UK statute book.
But the Prime Minister has also repeatedly said that he still intends to deliver on his ‘do or die’ pledge to take Britain out of the EU by Halloween, with or without a deal.
The fact that Mr Johnson’s two positions appear to be at odds with each other has led many critics to conclude that the PM could try to find a way around the rebel legislation.
Mr Grieve told Sky News that the consequences of taking such a course of action would be swift and dramatic.
Dominic Grieve, pictured in Manchester today, said the Queen would sack Boris Johnson if he failed to comply with an anti-No Deal law

Mr Johnson, pictured today, said said the government will comply with the law but he has also insisted he still intends to deliver on his pledge to deliver Brexit by October 31 ‘do or die’ and with or without a deal
The law, known as the Benn Act, will require the PM to write a letter to the EU on October 19 seeking a Brexit delay if No Deal looks likely.
Asked what would happen if Mr Johnson simply refused to write that letter, Mr Grieve said: ‘He would be taken to court and a writ of mandamus would be issued against him and he would be told that he has, as a matter of law, to write the letter.
‘The case could go to the Supreme Court and I suspect the courts could deal with it very quickly.’
Mr Grieve, one of 21 Tory MPs who were stripped of the Conservative whip after backing the bid to block No Deal, said it ‘doesn’t matter’ even if Mr Johnson said he was willing to go to prison to stick to his ‘do or die’ promise.
He said: ‘At that stage the Cabinet Secretary and the Civil Service would refuse to work for him.
‘I assume the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor will have resigned because it is such a flagrant breach of the law.’
He continued: ‘There is no question of putting the Prime Minister on trial. It is a question of the court ordering the Prime Minister to do something as a matter of law.
‘The Supreme Court, Her Majesty’s judges, telling the Prime Minister that as a matter of law he has to do something.’
Asked what would happen if Mr Johnson refused to bow to the court’s order, Mr Grieve said: ‘He will be out in five minutes. He will be dismissed.’
Asked if that meant the Queen would step in, the former Tory Cabinet minister replied: ‘Yes. I think it is a rather hypothetical position.
‘If he intends to continue behaving in his completely ludicrous fashion, yes perhaps, but I think that quite a few things will happen between now and then which would prevent it from happening.’
Mr Grieve suggested there was ultimately no way for the government to avoid complying with the Benn Act.
‘There will be a prime minister in place to be able to request that extension,’ he said.
‘If it is not the present Prime Minister who ought to do it then it will have to be somebody else.’
Sajid Javid today suggested the government does have a plan to try to bypass the Remainer legislation against No Deal.
The Chancellor said it is still ‘possible’ to honour the PM’s ‘do or die’ vow but he refused to give details of how Mr Johnson proposed to get around the law.
Mr Javid told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: ‘It’s part of our strategy to leave on October 31st – we are clear we will be leaving. It’s our policy.’