Lord Heseltine Accuses Boris Johnson Of 'Flouting Laws' and "Spiv" Tactics

20 October 2019, 12:58

The former Deputy Prime Minister accused Boris Johnson of "flaunting his determination to ignore the law" and said that sending multiple letters to the EU was "chicanery".

Lord Heseltine told Andrew Castle: "Yesterday just indicates what we already know, which is the deep division that Brexit has created in our society - and every day there are different manifestations of it.

"I think the present one is one of the more frightening I've seen, where a prime minister is merely flaunting his determination to ignore the law. For a conservative Prime Minister, I find this mind-blowing frankly.

This is chicanery, as John Major forecast. If you say I'll send you a letter, you could use those words, the presumption in any norm parlance is that you will send and sign a letter. Now, you can wriggle away and get an illegal interpretation, but this is a sort of backstreet spiv type argument."

Andrew Castle asked: "We understand it was merely a copy that were sent. He didn't sign it. He also wrote a side letter saying that he doesn't want to see any extension beyond October 31st. But in terms of complying with the law, Lord Heseltine, is there a question in your mind that he has?"

Heseltine replied: "As a layman, not a lawyer, as a layman, to me it seems a complete flouting the law. But this matter was not for me to determin and I haven't slightest doubt it'll be back in the court tomorrow."