What is BJ thinking ?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/will-leave-voters-forgive-a-brexit-delay/amp/?
The odds are that negotiations will have broken down before the EU Council in mid-October.
The Benn Act legally obliges the UK government to seek an extension on 19 October if no agreement with the EU has been reached.
Downing Street, though, is adamant that it won’t be requesting an extension - but neither will the Prime Minister disobey the law. Those close to him are clear that he won’t resign either.
He doesn’t want to give up the job
....
No. 10 is frantically looking for loopholes in the Benn Act,
a plausible way to avoid sending the letter which isn’t simply breaking the law.
They know that whatever the legal justification for their actions, they’ll be challenged in court - and will probably lose.
Indeed, the Supreme Court appeared to anticipate a challenge to the Benn Act when, in its decision that prorogation was unlawful,
it warned that the executive cannot render a ‘statute nugatory through recourse to the prerogative’.
So if any escape plan is doomed, why bother?
The answer is that No. 10 thinks it needs to try, so as to be seen to be doing every-thing in its power to keep its promise of leaving by 31 October
....
If the Prime Minister is forced to write a letter by parliament and by the judges (so the argument goes), Leave-supporting voters will blame them, not him.
Other options are being assessed:
for example, playing with the wording of the letter.
A senior Downing Street source predicts that when the letter arrives,
the EU will need to send for its lawyers to understand the implications of what the UK government is saying.
But the EU is likely to grant an extension anyway - and see if an election changes anything.
Even if the EU is becoming less keen on the UK staying in, it would still prefer to avoid no deal.