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Brussels passes UK's Brexit delay letter to EU parliament
By Daniel Bellamy • last updated: 20/10/2019
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In a meeting on Sunday 27 Brexit-weary EU states agreed to forward an ambiguous letter from the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the European Parliament this week for its approval.
The letter asks the EU to further delay the date by which the UK has to leave the bloc.
But Johnson has always insisted the UK will leave by October 31st without any delay - and crucially he didn't sign the letter.
That deliberate ambiguity will be scrutinised by Scotland's top court this week to see if it might have broken the law.
On Sunday the opposition Labour party declared that was exactly what happened.
Its chief Brexit official Keir Starmer told the UK's BBC: "The law is very clear. He should have signed one letter, in accordance with the law."
"If we crash out because of what he's done with the letters, in 11 days time without a deal, he bears personal responsibility for that," he added.
But Johnson's government is sticking to its script.
On Sunday Michael Gove, a close adviser to Johnson, told the UK's Sky News: "We are going to leave on October the 31st."
Gove also said the risk of no deal had increased and the government was stepping up preparations for it.
The International Monetary Fund has warned that a no deal Brexit would threaten the world's economy and reduce the UK's GDP by somewhere between 3.5 percent and 5 percent.
And the UK Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that it would push level of government debt to their point for over 50 years.
Johnson's government insist that such warning are exaggerations.
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