Boris Johnson: 'The Incredible Sulk chickens out' of Brexit press conference amid noisy protests as EU decries lack of 'concrete proposals'

Opinion: Tomorrow's Supreme Court case is about fighting for a Britain free from tyranny, writes anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller 

Boris Johnson has insisted that he will not ask the EU for a further delay to Brexit, despite the legal obligation on him to do so if he cannot negotiate a new deal.

The prime minister said would "uphold the constitution and obey the law" but added:

"We're going to come out on October 31st and it's vital that people understand that the UK will not extend. We won't go on remaining in the EU beyond October. What on earth is the point? Do you know how much it costs?

Asked how he would get around a law ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, he said:

"We will obey the law but we will come out and we will come out, I should say on October 31st."

He added:

"What we're going to do is come out on 31 October deal or no deal. And staying in beyond 31 October is completely. Crackers. You're spending a billion pounds a month for the privilege remaining in the. What is the point?"

Boris Johnson has insisted a new Brexit deal with Brussels is "doable" with "energy and good will" on both sides.

The prime minister said he was "a little bit" more optimistic than he was before their talks following his meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg on Monday.

"This is all doable. It's all doable with energy and good will," he told the BBC.

"I think Jean-Claude himself certainly would like to do a deal and would like the UK to, and would like to settle this if he possibly can.

"But clearly if we can't get movement from them on that crucial issue of whether the EU can continue to control the UK and our trade policy and our regulation, which is how it would work under the current Withdrawal Agreement, we won't be able to get that through the House of Commons, no way."

Boris Johnson says he is "a little bit, but not much" more optimistic about reaching a deal with the EU than he was when he entered Downing Street.

He told the BBC: "I think that there's perhaps an even greater willingness on the part of the Commission to engage than I had... than I had thought so."

The prime minister repeatedly said the UK would leave on 31 October, but declined to say how he could do so without breaking the so-called Benn Act.

"I will uphold the constitution, I will obey the law but we will come out on October 31," he said.

Appeal Court judges in Belfast have reserved judgment in a challenge against the government's handling of the Brexit process.

Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice, who led a panel of three judges, said they would take time to reflect on the arguments made by the three applicants in the case and the Government's response.

"We'll try to give a judgment as soon as we can," Sir Declan Morgan said.

He added he could not guarantee a judgment would be delivered this week but expressed hope a ruling would be ready before the end of the month.

Boris Johnson wanted to be the “romantic, patriotic” hero of Brexit despite believing the Leave campaign would be “crushed like a toad under the harrow”, David Cameron has said.

In an outspoken attack on his old colleague, the prime minister said Johnson had made a cynical decision to back Brexit in order to advance his own career. My colleague Lizzy Buchan has the full story:

Boris Johnson has rejected the EU’s call to publish his new Brexit proposals and may try to keep them secret until the UK and EU have “done the deal”, reports The Independent's deputy political editor Rob Merrick:

Labour's Hilary Benn, who chairs the Brexit Select Committee, has written to Boris Johnson to remind him he has four days to publish details of a proposed alternative to the backstop if he is to honour a promise he made to MPs, 

The prime minister had said he would reveal a plan "long before" the 30-day timetable suggested by German chancellor Angela Merkel comes to an end on Friday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg's now-infamous supine posture has been incorporated into an anti-Brexit poster which accuses the Conservative Party of lying about the NHS.

A image of the Commons leader slumped on the benches of the lower house during a debate earlier this month has appeared on Westminster Bridge Road in central London, a short distance from parliament. 

The post, erected by the protest group Led By Donkeys, reads: "The Tories are lying - Brexit would be bad for our NHS."

A spokesman for Led By Donkeys said: "The prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party claimed that leaving the EU would free up £350 million that would instead be spent on the NHS. It was a flat-out lie that he has never recanted or apologised for.

"In reality Brexit, and especially a no-deal Brexit, would be bad for both staffing and funding of the NHS. Our poster tells that simple truth."

The government has apologised to the Court of Appeal for two "inadvertent" breaches of an assurance it would not licence any more arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which could be used in the conflict in Yemen.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said military hardware worth £261,450 had been shipped to Middle Eastern country since an announcement in June that such exports would be suspended.

The pause came while the government considered the court's ruling that it had failed to assess whether the the Saudi-led coalition had violated international humanitarian law in the course of the Yemen conflict.

Truss said routine analysis of licensing statistics found a licence for an air cooler worth £200 for a Renault Sherpa Light Scout vehicle to be used by the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) had been issued just days after the ruling.

A subsequent review identified another licence for the export of 260 items of radio spares for the RSLF Signals Corps valued at £435,450 had been issued in July.

To date, 180 items worth £261,450 have been shipped.

In a letter to the Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls, Truss said the Department for International Trade was in the process of revoking the licence as "a matter of urgency".

"I have apologised to the court unreservedly for the error in granting these two licences," she added.

She said an internal investigation had been launched to establish whether any other licences had been issued in breach of assurances to the court or to parliament, and to ensure there could be no further breaches.