The House of Commons will be offered another chance to vote for an early election on Monday, the government has announced.
The news came after MPs rejected Boris Johnson’s plan for a snap election on 15 October in a vote on Wednesday. The fresh vote would be held under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, a procedure that requires two-thirds of MPs to back an early election if it is to pass.
However, Labour are expected to reject the call, as the party believes it would play into the prime minister’s hands.
The Guardian writes that “despite being taunted by Johnson as a ‘chlorinated chicken’ who is afraid of facing the public”, Corbyn is holding out for an election at a later date.
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said his party wanted an election, but would prioritise stopping a no-deal Brexit. Other oppositions MPs have echoed this call.
Speaking to the BBC, McDonnell that Labour was consulting with other opposition parties “to determine the date” of a general election, saying that he would prefer to have an election “later rather than sooner”.
He added: “The problem that we’ve got is that we cannot at the moment have any confidence in Boris Johnson abiding by any commitment or deal that we could construct.
“So we are now consulting on whether it’s better to go long, therefore, rather than to go short.”
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage says that Johnson “cannot win an election, whenever it comes, if the Brexit Party stands against him,” but adds that if their respective parties made a pact “we’d be unstoppable”.
The fresh vote on the matter is scheduled just before Parliament is due to be prorogued from next week. Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said the suspension would begin on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Meanwhile, a week of discomfort for Johnson has worsened after The Times revealed that the prime minister told the cabinet five days before he announced plans to hold a general election that he had no intention of calling one.
Official minutes of a cabinet conference call held last Wednesday show Johnson ruled out an early election, telling ministers it “would not be right for the British people”.
