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Boris Johnson's bid to stage a “People versus Parliament” general election is set to be blocked by the House of Commons, the architect of the law to prevent a no-deal Brexit revealed today.

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard, Sir Oliver Letwin said a cross-party alliance is ready to insist that an election be delayed until after key decisions on Brexit have been settled, either by a deal or through a referendum, possibly as late as summer 2020.

“We need to resolve this issue of Brexit before there is a general election so that the election can be about who you want to have govern you, and so the resolution of the Brexit issue is separate,” Sir Oliver said.

His intervention is highly significant and comes after Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said any referendum should come before an election and former prime minister Tony Blair said Mr Johnson would be “smart” to disentangle Brexit from other issues before going to the country.

Sir Oliver said the problem with a Brexit election was that it “muddles things up”.

The Prime Minister could have a “relatively quick” election if he secured a withdrawal agreement that commanded Parliament’s backing, but a referendum would be “relatively long” requiring some 20 weeks for legislation and campaigning.

The attempt to checkmate Mr Johnson’s election gamble came as:

Mr Johnson was forced to deny lying to the Queen over the suspension of Parliament, insisting such claims were “absolutely not” true.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet minister in charge of no-deal preparations, sought to ease fears of chaos following the publication of Operation Yellowhammer forecasts. He said the Government had taken “considerable steps in order to ensure that if there is a no-deal scenario, we can leave in the safest and smoothest possible way”.

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve accused the Government of “trashing the constitution”, and said Downing Street had made “attacks on the judiciary until they were stopped by the Lord Chancellor”.

Amber Rudd, who resigned from Cabinet at the weekend, said she is “likely” to stand as an independent Conservative unless the party whip is restored to 21 Tory MPs punished for voting to block a no-deal Brexit.

It emerged that European Union leaders have indicated to senior MPs that they will not allow any further extensions to Article 50 beyond January 31, the date set out in the landmark Act signed by the Queen on Monday, unless for a special purpose such as holding a referendum.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Brexit was “hopefully” going to happen on October 31, a term that suggests the Government is no longer certain it can exit from the EU by the Prime Minister’s “do or die” deadline.

Mr Johnson has pressed for a general election on October 14, two weeks before his preferred Brexit date, in an attempt to shape his offer as leaving the EU if he wins or “dither” under Jeremy Corbyn.

After the Labour leader was persuaded by MPs to refuse to grant the snap election, speculation moved to a polling day in late November, setting up a showdown ahead of a probable new Brexit deadline of January 31.