“I don’t want an election but if MPs vote tomorrow to stop the negotiations and to compel another pointless delay of Brexit, potentially for years, then that will be the only way to resolve this,” Boris Johnson was quoted as saying by AFP.
He said he would table a parliamentary motion to call an early election after lawmakers voted against his Brexit strategy in a major defeat.
This comes more than three years after people in the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. Ever since then, the Brexit crisis has continued and its future remains uncertain.
WHAT HAPPENED ON TUESDAY?
Despite a warning that Boris Johnson would seek an early election if they tied his hands over Brexit, a bloc of opposition lawmakers and rebels in Johnson’s own party defied him and seized control of the Brexit agenda.
The 328 to 301 vote on Tuesday night clears the way for Johnson’s opponents to introduce a bill on Wednesday that would seek to prevent Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal October 31.
The cross-party rebels are determined to prevent a “no-deal” Brexit because of fears it would gravely damage the economy.
The prime minister’s office has indicated he would seek an early election if that bill is passed to take his Brexit case to the people.
Johnson also lost his working majority with the defection of one of his Conservative Party legislators to the rival Liberal Democrats.
The government’s leader in Britain’s House of Commons has accused rebels of an unconstitutional attempt to seize control of Parliament’s agenda
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BORIS JOHNSON
This comes as bad news for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He took over office less than six months ago and has already faced a huge rebellion within his own party. The rebellion is such that he no longer enjoys a working majority in the House of Commons.
On Tuesday, rebel MPs from Boris Johnson’s party (who were opposed to his Brexit policy) joined hands with the opposition to thwart his attempts to take Britain out from the European Union.
“The prime minister had warned that anyone who voted against him would be expelled from the party. He is now expected to table a motion for an early election before parliament on Wednesday, with the poll date expected before a crucial EU summit on October 17 and 18,”news agency AFP said in a report.
The report added that there is uncertainty on whether Boris Johnson will succeed because calling an early election requires support of two-thirds of MPs. With him losing majority in the House of Commons, this looks like a tall task.
WHAT NEXT?
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said lawmakers were seeking to prevent Johnson “playing Russian roulette with this country’s future.”
On Parliament’s first day back from its summer break, they put forward a motion to grab control of parliament on Wednesday – a step that, after a debate granted by the Speaker, was to go to a House of Commons vote at around 2000-2100 GMT on Tuesday.
If lawmakers are granted control of the parliamentary business, they will seek on Wednesday to pass a law that would force Johnson to ask the EU to delay Brexit for three months until Jan. 31, 2020 unless he has a deal approved by parliament, or parliament agrees to a no-deal Brexit.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson cast the challenge as an attempt to force Britain to surrender to the EU just as he hopes to secure concessions on the terms of the divorce – a step he said he would never accept.
“It means running up the white flag,” Johnson said. “It is a bill that, if passed, would force me to go to Brussels and beg an extension. It would force me to accept the terms offered. It would destroy any chance of negotiation for a new deal.”
Just as Johnson began speaking, he lost his working majority in parliament when one of his own Conservative lawmakers, Phillip Lee, crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the pro-EU Liberal Democrats.
Labour’s Corbyn told parliament that Johnson’s was a government with “no mandate, no morals and, as of today, no majority”.
In the eye of the Brexit maelstrom, it was unclear if opposition parties would support any move to call an election – which requires the support of two-thirds of the 650-seat House of Commons.
The Labour Party’s chief enforcer said the party would not allow Johnson to manipulate an election to force through a no-deal Brexit, a source said.
The pound, which has gyrated to the twists and turns of Brexit since the 2016 Brexit referendum and is highly sensitive to the prospect of a “no-deal” exit, briefly dipped as low as $1.1959 GBP=D3. Barring a minutes-long “flash crash” in October 2016, sterling has not regularly traded at such low levels since 1985.
NO-DEAL BREXIT
Fears of an abrupt “no-deal” Brexit were rising elsewhere.
The European Commission said such a scenario was a “very distinct possibility” and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was the most likely scenario.
The UN trade agency UNCTAD said it would cost Britain at least $16 billion in lost exports to the EU, plus a further substantial sum in indirect costs.
US Vice-President Mike Pence used a visit to Ireland on Tuesday to urge the European Union to negotiate with Britain “in good faith”.
The 2016 Brexit referendum showed a United Kingdom divided about much more than the European Union, and has fuelled soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and modern Britishness.
It has also triggered civil war inside both of Britain’s main political parties as dozens of lawmakers put what they see as the United Kingdom’s fate above that of party loyalty.
As Johnson played Brexit chess with lawmakers, opponents cast his tactics as undemocratic, including an order to suspend parliament for more than a month beginning next week. That has been followed by his threat to kick rebels out of the ruling party – some of them ex-ministers who left the cabinet just weeks ago.
“I think we will have the numbers,” said one of the rebels, former finance minister Philip Hammond. “Prime Minister Johnson has always intended that there will be an election.”
The government has effectively turned the challenge into a confidence vote by making clear that if the government were defeated, it would hold a vote on Wednesday to approve an early election, most likely to be held on October 14.
The US investment bank JPMorgan said an election would make a no-deal Brexit more likely.
(With inputs from Reuters and Associated Press)
Prasanta Patnaik