PM could be found in contempt of court, warn legal experts, as Corbyn says Johnson ‘not above the law’

Jeremy Corbyn has warned Boris Johnson he is not above the law after the prime minister suggested he would refuse to seek another Brexit extension, despite MPs passing a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit deal.

Speaking on a visit to Norwich on Saturday, the Labour leader said: “We’re in quite extraordinary territory when the prime minister says he is above the law.

“They are preparing for chaos. The best thing they could do is actually make sure he abides by the decision of parliament, which has passed a new act, in order to prevent a crashing out on 31 October, and extend for three months in order for there to be sensible negotiations with the EU. Any sensible prime minister would do that.”

Legal experts have warned that Boris Johnson could face prison if he refuses to abide by the bill, which was passed on Friday and is set to become law on Monday.

Scottish Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins, a former law professor, said Boris Johnson must resign rather than break the law by forcing through a no-deal Brexit, while Lord MacDonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said if Johnson refused to request an extension he could be found in contempt of court. “A refusal in the face of that would amount to contempt of court, which could find that person in prison,” he told Sky News.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lord MacDonald, the former director of public prosecutions, says the attorney general won’t ‘sit quietly’ while the PM breaks the law. Photograph: Frank Baron/for the Guardian

In a series of tweets, Tomkins said that Johnson had only one option if he refused to ask for an extension: resign. “Irrespective of what we think about Brexit, or the PM, surely we can all agree on one fundamental principle: the government is bound to obey the law,” he wrote.

“If the law compels the PM to act in a certain way, and if the PM refuses so to act, he has only one option: to resign his ministry. It really is as simple as that.”

Q&A How does the Fixed-term Parliaments Act work? Show Hide Introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the act set in place five-year, fixed-term parliaments with elections to be held on the first Thursday in May in 2015, 2020, 2025 and so on.

In theory, the act makes the calling of any general election outside this term the decision of the House of Commons, not the prime minister. A vote by at least two-thirds of the Commons in favour of an early general election would formally fire the starting gun on the process – the input of the House of Lords is not required. The act also provides for an early poll if a majority of MPs pass a vote of no confidence in the government and no new government is formed within the following 14 days.

According to the Telegraph, Johnson wrote to the Conservative membership and suggested he would not obey any legislation that required him to ask for an extension. “They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do,” he wrote.

During an appearance in Wakefield earlier this week, Johnson said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than ask for an extension from the EU, and the prime minister has previously said that he would take the UK out of Europe, “do or die”, on 31 October.

MacDonald said his suggestion that Johnson could be imprisoned was “not an extreme outcome” as it is convention that individuals who won’t “purge their contempt” are sent to prison. The cross-party peer added that if the prime minister was to do “something as foolish as that”, he would be on his own, “maybe accompanied by Dominic Cummings”.

MPs 'checked with EU chiefs over Brexit delay' before passing bill Read more

MPs voted in favour of a bill designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit earlier this week. The legislation requires the prime minister to ask the EU for the Brexit deadline to be extended beyond 31 October if a deal is not agreed with Brussels by 19 October 19.

Johnson was defeated in the House of Commons for the third time in a week when he tried to force a general election but failed to get the two-thirds majority of the house required under the Fixed-terms Parliament Act.

The so-called “rebel alliance” of Tory MPs, including Ken Clarke and Sir Nicholas Soames, who voted against the government over Brexit, had the Conservative whip withdrawn, with Soames saying the party is was starting to resemble a “Brexit sect”.