Boris Johnson is set to make a fourth bid for an early general election, after MPs rejected his latest plan last night.
The prime minister described Parliament as “dysfunctional” after only 299 MPs backed his election plan last night – well short of the two-thirds majority needed under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.
Tory MPs backed the motion, but all but one MP from the Liberal Democrats voted against it, while the vast majority of Labour MPs abstained, along with the SNP and DUP.
His next attempt will see Johnson publish a bill today suggesting a 12 December poll that would only need a simple majority to succeed.
He would still need votes from smaller parties for it to pass but as The Guardian points out, “an election could be achieved with the backing of the Lib Dems or the Scottish National party”.
Johnson says he will not give up on his efforts to get an early election, telling MPs that “one way or another” the current deadlock must be broken.
He added: “We will not allow this paralysis to continue, and one way or another we must proceed straight to an election. The government will give notice of presentation for a short bill for an election on 12 December so we can finally get Brexit done. This House cannot any longer keep this country hostage.”
Johnson will scrap attempts to push his Brexit bill through this parliament, with a No. 10 source saying: “The withdrawal bill will not be brought back. This is the way to get Brexit done so the country can move on.”
This means that he has abandoned his “do or die” campaign promise to leave the European Union by 31 October “come what may”.
Whether his latest bid for a December election succeeds remains to be seen. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has resisted an early poll, has left the door ajar to backing the idea. “We will consider carefully any legislation on an early election,” he said.
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, who has previously put forward her own plan for an early poll, said she was not happy with Johnson’s proposed date of 12 December because it is after many universities have broken up for Christmas and students have returned to their home towns, meaning they would be effectively disenfranchised.
“If Boris Johnson wants a general election, then he could have supported our bill for a general election on 9 December,” she said. “Instead, he has chosen to stick to his original plan for 12 December which we have already rejected.”
The Times says the timing issue could be Johnson’s undoing, predicting that his bid “could be thwarted by a squabble over the exact election date”.
As for the SNP, the party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford, said “we don’t trust this prime minister and we don’t trust this prime minister for good reason”.
He demanded “an absolute cast-iron assurance that up until the passage of that bill and the rising of parliament, that there will be no attempt to bring forward the withdrawal agreement bill”.
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